Lost: Don't Hold Your Breath

The Man in Black is willing to say or do anything to convince someone to kill Jacob. And he was desperate to leave the Island in 1867, when he'd already been there for a long time! What if the meddling in the universe is not from Jacob, but from the Smoke Monster's long attempt to find the loophole? That could place the divergence between the sideways and the original timeline way back in 19th century, and possibly explain some of the sideways differences we've seen. Anyway, we finally got our long awaited flashback for Richard Alpert!


Who is Richard Alpert? We've been waiting for years to learn the answer to that question. Did this episode really give us many answers? He was living on a Canary Island off Spain in 1867, and he worked in the fields. His wife fell ill, and he accidentally killed a doctor. Then he spent the next 140 years working for Jacob, doing...well we never get to that. In fact, this episode was much like the rest of season six - it gave Nestor Carbonell a chance to act his heart out, but gave viewers little in the way of plot development. It seems really strange to me that after five years of stories, rather than present us with a natural climax, the producers of Lost feel that they have so much character building left to do. We saw how Richard got his "job" but not what his job was really like.

What was it like for Richard, trying to bring people together from multiple countries and time periods to work on the Island? And the whole time, Richard would be trying to counteract the lies and manipulation of the Man in Black. What did Jacob have them doing for all that time? In theory, there were waves and waves of people arriving between 1867 and 2007, and Richard welcomed them in (if they didn't get killed by Smokey first). Who were those people? What did they all do? Oh, that's right, they were suddenly written off in batches, first in the massacre at the end of season three, and then during the Monster's attack on the Temple. None of those people matter at all to the writers.

What the hell was Richard doing on the Island for 140 years that he never learned a single thing from Jacob? He believes they're dead and in hell? It made no sense to say that to Jack, and was just another silly writer's trick. Alpert clearly said to Jacob in the flashback "Absolve me for my sins, so I don't go to hell." I guess that was meant to be a nod to fans, but the result is that they put a bunch of nonsense into a main character's mouth. Meanwhile, the producers are telling us they're making "character driven" stories. I'd rather have seen what the Others have been up to this whole damn time, than spend the whole season treading water with these "might-have-been" stories.

And what on earth is going on with the narrative structure? Is Richard flashing sideways? Is this his real past or the sideways past? After a season of stories about alterna-characters, are we supposed to suddenly read Richard's episode as a traditional flashback? Well, yes obviously. But you see why this presents a narrative problem, and in my opinion, one more reason why the flash sideways just doesn't work.


The writers also got caught with some major time discontinuity. We learned in "The Constant" that the Black Rock was lost following its departure in 1845, which has always presented a problem - how did they get dynamite, which was patented in 1867? The ship's ledger naming Magnus Hanso as captain was found in 1852, and subsequently purchased by Charles Widmore at auction. And now we have Richard boarding the ship and traveling to the Island...in the year 1867!

Plus, when we first saw Jacob and the Man in Black in the season five finale, we were shown a ship on the horizon and the statue remained intact. (Many fans theorized that ship was in fact the Black Rock.) Sitting on the beach, MiB says one day he's going to find the loophole to kill Jacob. In "Ab Aeterno", after the Black Rock destroys the Statue, Jacob is surprised to learn that MiB sent Ricardo to kill him. MiB later tells Jacob, as though for the first time, that he plans to kill him. Whoops! Are we to assume that the bizarre time currents surrounding the Island (the ones that made Daniel's test rocket arrive 31 minutes late) somehow changed night to day, and calm seas to a tsunami?

Finally, in this episode we see the Black Rock destroy the statue and land far inland - I call bullshit! Isn't this supposed to be a scifi show? They've got a long way to go. I would have preferred to see that the Island suddenly appeared underneath the Black Rock at some point due to being moved by the Frozen Wheel or something.


Well, our conflict continues to vaguely take shape. Jacob has been keeping the Man in Black on the Island for some time (To make a point? To win a bet?) and in the second half of the 19th century, MiB could take no more. He took advantage of Jacob's latest recruit, and sent him off in search of "the devil". Richard didn't go empty handed though, he had the same knife and instructions that were presented to Sayid by Dogen. So, why was the leader of the Temple giving someone the same knife and instructions that belong to the Man in Black? It didn't seem like Dogen really expected that to work on the Smoke Monster, so maybe he was just hoping Sayid would end up dead. With Dogen floating face down in the broken Spring of Life, I guess it will be hard to answer that question.

But it is certainly the same knife. It's a roman pugio - the same weapon used by the conspirators who stabbed Julius Caesar to death. This model was the type used by Roman soldiers in the early 1st century AD. When the Monster says he's been on the Island "a long time" is that what he means? Did the Man in Black once serve the Roman legions?


This episode didn't bring us much closer to an understanding of the Man in Black. We still have no explanation as to why he turns into a Smoke Monster and kills arrivals on the Island. Was he brought here like Jacob's other recruits, and if so, what makes him different? To hear him talk about it, the Man in Black is Jacob's prisoner, begging to be let go. But Jacob's side of the story is that, "An old friend grew tired of my company". Anyway, I did catch one detail that brought me some good old fashioned Lost joy. I think we saw the Man in Black take on another of his forms when he appears as a boar.

Richard has been trapped inside the Black Rock for sometime when he wakes and finds a boar is rooting in the corpses. He startles it, and as the boar runs out of the ship Richard drops the nail he is using to free himself. Then, the Smoke Monster appears first as Richard's wife Isabella, then as his Man in Black form. He says he will free Richard, as long as Richard will help him in return. That Smoke Monster is quite a con artist - and he once took on the "best liar" the Man in Black has ever seen.

In season one, a huge bit of Lost mythology was introduced - the whispers. In "Outlaws" Sawyer wakes to find a boar in his tent, ravaging his belongings much like the boar in the Black Rock. When he gives chase, he hears the whispers for the first time, and the voice of a dead man saying, "It'll come back around." See, Sawyer was in Australia looking for the Real Sawyer who conned his parents. He gets a tip that it's a guy named Frank Duckett, so James tracks him down and shoots him. However, when James starts reading his "Dear Mr. Sawyer" letter, Duckett looks up confused and says, "Who?" The dying words of the innocent man were, "It'll come back around."

Now Sawyer is hearing things, and dwelling on his past, but he's determined to get that damn boar. He and Kate track it through the jungle, and make camp for the night. Sawyer dreams of the night his parents died, a scared boy hiding under the bed. But instead of his father, the boar enters the room and you can hear the whisper "It'll come back around". When Sawyer wakes, they discover "the boar" came in the night and destroyed Sawyer's stuff - but left Kate's untouched. When he finally catches the boar, James' memory of killing Frank Duckett in Australia makes him pause. Did this decision save his life? Was that boar one second away from transforming into a giant cloud of smoke and turning Sawyer to a pulp? I think so. (Though I must note that in reviewing for this article, I noticed that Richard and MiB are just as likely eating that boar in a later scene, as though it left the ship and ran right into an angry Smoke Monster. But hey! Like I said, it brings me joy.)


I did like Jacob's conversation with Richard in this episode. I thought it was cool, informative, and metaphorical. Jacob is playing a grand game of good vs. evil, favoring free will as the path. But, "he can be very...convincing" as the Man in Black tells Richard. The Island is a cork holding in "darkness" otherwise known as "malevolence", "evil" or "hell" and if it gets out, it will "spread." I thought it was cool how this calls back to the Swan Hatch, which was another metaphorical cork holding back great power. Are those things directly related, or only thematically? Interesting too, that the same words were used to describe what has taken over Sayid and Claire.

It does seem now like the Man in Black is not just any old villain, but may be ready to unleash the very evils of hell on the world, just out of selfishness. He'll do anything to escape this sentence on the Island. But I don't think he dreams of a world overrun by demons, with him as some mad emperor. He's just a poor Roman centurion who wants to get off this damn crazy Island, come hell or high water. Is he really a "bad guy" or just an innocent pawn driven to his wit's end? And what was meant by that last shot of Flocke at the end? Were we supposed to think that he was watching Hurley and Richard this whole time? And if so, does that mean it wasn't Isabella speaking to Hurley at all, but rather another trick by the Mib?

As things turn into a sloppy mess here at the end, it's very frustrating. Time spent theorizing or pondering the meanings of Lost feels wasted. In the end, it seems no deeper than it was at the beginning: Love/Death, Fate/Free Will, Faith, and Redemption. What about those things? Oh, you know, they exist.

As Lost draws to an end, I'm not feeling "climax". It's like the show hasn't grown up, or figured out what it wants to say about all these weighty themes. All we can say for sure it that it will end Sunday, May 23. Don't hold your breath!

Next week is "The Package" and Jin was detained with a package in LA X. I'd guess we finally find out what Jin & Sun have been up to in the sideways. Are they married? Sun was using her maiden name in LA X. And Jin's package originally contained a gold watch - the same one Keamy was wearing in Sundown. What's their place in this whole crazy scheme?

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Lost: Reflections

This episode was all about trust - Sawyer had trust issues with his partner Miles in the sideways, and played with the trust of the Monster on the Island. Widmore trusts that Sawyer will double cross the Monster in exchange for passage off the Island. Claire suddenly trusted that Kate took good care of Aaron - hey, where the hell did that come from? Anyway...

Another week, another story about a character we almost know. I'm feeling a major lack of dramatic tension in these flash sideways stories. Wow, this week we learn that Charlotte dated Sawyer one time in an alternate dimension! That adds so much to the characters we've come to know over the years.

Oh, and Charlie's brother had to travel to LA to try and find him, and the LAPD can't offer a single bit of assistance. That certainly filled in some gaps for me regarding the Pace family, thanks.

In Sawyer's sideways story, he is tense. His partner Miles has a plan to help him blow off some steam - a blind date with a hot redhead! Conveniently, this also gives him a chance to snoop on James and possibly find out what he was doing in Australia. Charlotte was acting crazy focused as she pawed through Sawyer's drawers - it seemed like she was looking for evidence. Seriously, either that or Rebecca Mader is a terrible actress - that was some frantic riffling! Check it:



The next day Miles comes blowing into the locker room and gives Sawyer a lecture about trust. James gets pissed and he punches a mirror. I thought this was all a bit overwrought.

Season six of Lost is giving us something of a "mirror universe" and it's preoccupied with mirrors and reflections. The producers intended to reflect the series, and particularly season one. For one thing, Damon Lindelof said, "Season six will feel a lot like season one. The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began." And the order of the flashbacks is similar. The flash sideways stories are all full of references to previous events on Lost. And every week we are treated to shot after shot of reflections.

MIRRORS TO THE EXTREEM~!
Kate realizes she's a hideous bitch goddess

Jack notices his appendix scar for the first time

Locke's reflection finds its calling, pretending to be Charles Xavier

Sayid ponders his beauty, moments before Nadia opens the door

Sawyer hates who he sees in the mirror

...and then pulls out the ever popular mirror punch. See how fractured he feels inside!!

It's becoming so repetitive, I want to scream "We're through the looking glass here people!!" It is interesting that the next line of that quote is, "White is black and black is white!" Hmmm...

Anyway, back to the good stuff. On the Island, Terry O'Quinn was nailing it. His scene talking about his mother was great. And as for trust, the Smoke Monster proved to be every bit as manipulative as Jacob. Though he told Richard that he would never leave his followers in the dark, he had only vague answers for some and misdirection for others.

First, he tells the Others he'll be available for questions soon, but you know, later. Let's just keep walking through the jungle in silence for now. And yes, that evil Smoke Monster killed the people at the Temple, but he's gone now - no need to worry!

Then, he tells Sawyer to go find the passengers of Ajira 316, but really he wants Sawyer to talk to Widmore. Widmore already knows who James Ford is - a con man. So, that can only mean one thing - while Sawyer is planning his double-double cross, to screw the Smoke Monster and take Widmore's submarine, Widmore is planning a triple cross! Maybe he's got Desmond behind that locked door? Notice how the guard went right for his gun when Sawyer touched the lock.

At this point, it seems foolish to try and guess what's coming next. I mean, who could have predicted the Lighthouse? Not to mention, after all these stories about daddy issues, the Monster turns out to be just a guy who's messed up about his mom. That said, I have an idea about the flash sideways.

We're eight hours into the season, and we've still only seen series regular Henry Ian Cusick for about two minutes. Desmond will turn out to be a key player. Remember back in season three, the Desmond episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes"? There were a couple times it seemed as though Desmond "woke up" in his flashback, and realized he was in another time.

(On a side note - I literally watched "Flashes" on my feet in my living room, pacing about and occasionally exclaiming. It was that exciting. We could use a little more of that now, in the last season!)

Then, in season four's "The Constant" Desmond was able to remain conscious during his flash back to 1996, retaining some memories from 2004. Well, it would be silly if that never came back - as Daniel told Des, "You're uniquely special." I think Desmond will be the one to start the collapse of the sideways universe.

At some point later in the season, we'll see Desmond go wild. I think he remembers the "way things were meant to be" because his other life in the original time line "flashes before his eyes". He'll spend time visiting all the characters, and he'll finally turn out to be Daniel Faraday's constant. Faraday may even be a big help in reconciling the two universes, because his math was responsible for creating the sideways in the first place.

It may be as simple as reminding a few people that they had another life - we've seen several characters act as though they vaguely remember that something is up. Like in LA X, it seemed as though Kate remembered Jack - maybe in another life...

Anyway, that's all I got. As we get closer to the end, Lost seems less and less like the series that started back in 2004. All I can do is hold on to the end and trust that it will make some sense.

Next week, the one you've all been waiting for...Richard Alpert's flashback! We will learn some, but not all of the Island's history. I can't wait!

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Drawing Sides

Lost's teams of light and dark are continuing to draw sides. Last week featured the dark forces gathering, and this week we saw Jacob's light team take up residence at the old beach camp. There was some really good stuff with Jack and Richard Alpert facing off in the Black Rock. And while I still side with viewers who are questioning the decision to focus on flash sideways stories during the final season, this week's flash did a good job reflecting on the character of Benjamin Linus.


The episode felt a little slow, but it was good character stuff from Ben and Michael Emerson. We learned that Napoleon existed in this universe, but did he still escape Elba? How long did his reign extend? We didn't get any alternate history lessons in the sideways - instead we got Principal Dickless and Leslie Arzt, computer hacker. Overall I found Ben the history teacher a bit weak. I guess I liked Emerson's performance, and Ben's little ploy for the principal's job was ok, but the retaliation from Princpal Reynolds was toothless. Why wouldn't Ben just take the principal job and send his own recommendation letter? In many ways, it was a silly story just showing how much Ben would give for his "daughter" Alex. And the fact that I watched the Coen brother's brilliant "A Serious Man" the next day probably didn't help my impressions.

But Ben's Napoleon lecture revealed a lot about the man who gave his life to defend the Island. "And it was on this island that everything changed - that everything finally became clear." Ben really thought he was special - a born defender of the island. He staged a coup to take power from Widmore - and it still isn't clear if that was Ben's idea or Jacob's. Ben has said he never saw Jacob, but I would guess that Jacob affected Ben's life just like he did with the survivors of 815. But there is also a darker power at work on Ben.


It was very interesting that Ben's idea to stage a power play against the principal started with a comment from "the substitute" John Locke. I think on the Island, the Smoke Monster has been manipulating Ben since he was just a boy. Shortly after he arrived on the Island, young Ben saw his mother in a clearing near the edge of the DHARMA fence. I think it was actually the Smoke Monster. Ben later returned and heard the whispers, before finding Richard Alpert (with long hair!) instead of his mother. Richard was very interested to hear that Ben had seen his dead mother appear on the Island. He told Ben one day maybe he could join the Others, if he's patient. But things moved a little more quickly when Sayid turned up in 1977 and shot young Ben, and then Kate and Sawyer turned to the Others to save him. I think that kicked off a big part of the Monster's plan to kill Jacob - it was all about getting Ben into the right position.


By December 2004, Ben was seriously messed up. He had killed for Jacob, but apparently never seen or talked to him. Now he felt Jacob was favoring Locke, by helping John walk while Ben was confined to a wheelchair. When Jacob seemed to speak to Locke, Ben lost it entirely. I think when Christian appeared to John it was actually the Smoke Monster. After all his work supporting Jacob and the Island, it seemed to Ben that he was unworthy and out of favor. He decided he would turn the wheel and leave the Island forever. It seemed like it was the hardest decision Ben had ever made, and he looked up with tears in his eyes saying, "I hope you're happy Jacob."

But now, Dr. Linus says in his lecture that, "Exile wasn't the worst of his fate. What was truly devastating to him was the loss of his power." Without that, "he might just as well have been dead." It seems that power may really be what Ben is all about. And this episode featured some great interplay between the flash story and the Island action, as both Bens struggled with feelings of powerlessness.

Ben X felt controlled by a principal who didn't view education with the same importance. He tried to make a power play, but in the end he was outmaneuvered. Meanwhile Island Ben was literally dragged along and chained to a tree. The Smoke Monster presented Ben with an opportunity to join his side, but Ben preferred to stay at the beach camp. Was this the redemption of Benjamin Linus? He seemed to have learned a lesson about living without power - or did he? Ben's power has always been lies, and no matter what he always has a plan. Did he choose to stay with the Losties with the hope he can one day regain the upper hand? We'll see.


Jack was relegated to a rare B story appearance this week, along with Hurley providing some great comic relief, and Richard Alpert. Even though viewers have seen that Richard doesn't know very much after all, it seemed like an opportunity for Jack to ask some big questions. But Jack was reminding me of the mainstream media - demanding answers and then letting Richard get away with vague slippery responses. I loved the bit with the dynamite though. It was like Jack was testing Jacob, as Jacob has been testing them. Great exchange between Richard and Jack over the rapidly shortening dynamite fuse - "That's quite a risk you're taking Jack." "Yes." "What if you're wrong?" "I'm not." *fizzle*


Richard was just begging for someone to follow (what's with these Other sheep?) so he hooks up with Jack and Hurley to head back to the old beach camp from season one. This made for an odd reunion scene. Last time Sun was with Jack she hated him - convinced he and Kate were responsible for Jin's death. The only people who know Alpert are Ben and Ilana and they both sort of ignore him, and of course they have their own weird things going on. Anyway, it made for one of those happy slo-mo beach montages from season one that I talked about last week. And wasn't the final framing interesting? A group, with two men standing alone at either side - one in white and one in black.


Then it was revealed that the "someone" Jacob said was coming is likely Charles Widmore. This will be very interesting to see, because it seems the Widmore/Ben feud had taken a back burner, after seeming so important in season four. Is Widmore going to turn out to be on Jacob's side in the end? Or when he told Locke that if he didn't return to the Island the "wrong side will win" was he showing his support for the Man in Black?

Next week "Recon" should give us our first glimpse of Sawyer's sideways life. What will Sawyer do in a world where Locke's father never conned his parents? Will he even be...a good guy? On the Island, we should see him with Locke's camp, which could make for some interesting tension between the Island story and the flash sideways. Plus, ABC promises that the time for questions is over! Read more!

Lost: Darkness Falls

Welcome to Lost's version of The Empire Strikes Back. The dark forces ran rampant through Jacob's Temple. Dogen and his translator are face down in the former healing spring. And our heroes Claire, Sayid and Kate have fallen in with the Man in Black, who we are told is "evil incarnate".


Fans on the internet went crazy for this episode. In particular, a lot of people on message boards were saying "finally things are happening!!!" And what most people were responding to was the fighting, gun play, and murder. All too often, I find Lost uses a big blow up as a convenient way to dispose of plot threads. (The perfect example of this is Isabel, the Other's "sherrif" who was introduced in the epically messy Stranger in a Strange Land, only to be killed offscreen, apparently during the season three finale.) Now we've seen dozens of faceless Others mercilessly whacked yet again. Remember when it seemed like they might be important? It seems like most of the Others are nobodies, and they're a lot of sheep to boot.

I wasn't wowed by this episode, but it was full of fitting details. With time, I may warm up to the story - especially depending on how this whole crazy series resolves.

At this point in the season, I'm still not sold on the sideways stories. I'd rather see more about the dozens of characters and concepts that have already been introduced, from the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso and DHARMA, to the Other's "sherrif", their discipline and branding of criminals, funeral pyre ceremonies and "magic box". Not to mention Ms. Hawking, Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, and most of all Desmond and Penny! And what was the Incident really? Remember that Blast Door Map, and Radzinski in the Swan Hatch? Geez...


Anyway, back to Sundown - there were definitely things I liked. Kevin Durand was perfectly creepy returning as Keamy, even if it was another bit-too-cute cameo. And I absolutely loved Ben slowing backing away from demonic Sayid at the end. Ben has manipulated Sayid for years, using him as a killer for hire, but he wasn't spending even one more minute with whatever is controlling him now.

Also, it seems clear that this is really Sayid somehow returned to life, as he's retained his memories and his motivations. Sundown was a fitting sideways story for Sayid. In true season one fashion, the "flash" was informing the Island story, and vice versa, in a really good way. While Sayid X felt tortured by his past and sure he was a "bad man", Island Sayid killed indiscriminately and proclaimed "I am a good man."


Season six is all about referencing season one. They had already touched on Sayid's first flashback episode with Dogen's "tests" clearly mirroring Danielle Rousseau's treatment of Sayid in "Solitary". That episode also introduced the character of Nadia, who returns here as Sayid's one true motivation.

"Solitary" was also the beginning of Sayid's journey seeking redemption for his years of violence. Sayid has been battling with the feeling that violence is his nature - that he can never escape being a torturer and killer. And even though the Island seemed to offer redemption, Sayid has not been able to escape that nature.

As Sayid was dying, he told Hurley "I've tortured more people than I can remember...I've murdered...Wherever I'm going won't be very pleasant. I deserve it." But in the sideways universe, Sayid says he's "not that man anymore." Did anyone really believe Sayid "translates contracts" for a living though? Unless that's some kind of euphemism...


But I do sort of fear that these sideways stories may be "a better place" that all the Losties get to by learning their lessons from the Island. I think it's possible they are showing us the epilogue now, as the final events are playing out. I don't know if I like the idea of a reset happening at the end, and somehow this sideways season was like a really long version of the montage you might see at the end of a movie. Weird.

It would make sense of Dogen's comments though. He said Jacob would save his son, but Dogen would never see him again. But if his son were saved in the sideways, at least Dogen X gets to see the boy. We'll see. It was interesting to see Sayid and Dogen comparing notes - both seem to have made shady deals with shady characters. Making a deal with the devil - it seems like that's what you're doing no matter which side you choose. Dogen can save his son, but never see him again. Sayid can have Nadia back, but he must give in to the dark past that makes him feel like he doesn't deserve her anyway.

It's interesting how Lost seems to be about a group of flawed people who are struggling to find redemption, but most of them fail. In fact, in many ways the show is telling us that we can't escape our fate - even in the sideways Kate is on the run, Jack has daddy issues, and Sayid is a killer.


I was glad Miles had a little something to do this week. He confirmed that Sayid was truly dead for two hours, and "Whatever brought you back...it wasn't them." We now have a clear case of the dead brought back to life, probably by the Smoke Monster. It's confusing how Sayid and Claire are different from what happened to John Locke - unless these are the three heads of Cerberus? We'll see if the Monster recruits any more "dead" characters like Christian, Charlie, even Libby or Shannon. Will he raise an army of the dead?

It seemed like Miles might be set to join the ranks of the dead himself. It was a relief to see him rescued from the Monster by Ilana, but really - what is her deal? How much does she know? It's seemingly more than Ben, ex-Leader who's been with the Others for thirty years. She just seems a little too much like a deus ex machina device for lazy writers. In a few episodes, we're promised a confrontation between her and Richard, so she can probably drop some huge details then. Can't wait to see a Richard-centric episode!

The finale was a dark twist on the happy Island montage sequences Lost used so much in season one. Pleasant music would play as the castaways settled down after a hard day of adventure: Sawyer brooding, Sayid building something, Charlie flirting with Claire, all in slo-mo. This time, set to a creepy version of Aaron's favorite song, Sayid and Claire survey the dead after the Smoke Monster's rampage.


I'm not quite sure what to make of the look Flocke gives Kate at the end. Many say it's quizzical, and indicates surprise at Kate's presence or an indication the Monster hadn't thought of Kate. I don't really see a question in his face, so I feel it's more a look of "Yeah, come on Kate. You can tag along with the Other sheep." I wouldn't be surprised though, if MiB is underestimating Kate.

Next week features one of my favorites on Lost, Ben Linus, which means more of the incredible Emmy-winning actor Michael Emerson. It sounded like ABC was spoiling the episode in their promo this week. I really hope the best for "Mr. Linus".

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Lighthouse: Choice and Fate

Wow. This week's Lost showed that the themes may be clear, but exactly how things are going to play out is anything but obvious. A lighthouse with magic mirrors, that can show the off-Island lives of our heroes! Who saw that coming? We also saw developments that shed interesting light on the status of Christian Shephard and Claire, the "infection", and life and death on the Island. Plus the sideways universe managed to turn up the heat a little bit.


Usually Lost episode titles are some sort of double entendre. For instance, "The Substitute" can refer to the Man in Black using Locke's form, and also Locke X's job as a substitute teacher. Plus, Jacob is looking for his substitute.This week we saw a lighthouse. It's hard to think of another meaning for that. I guess this is Jacob's Light house, while last week we saw the Dark house - the Man in Black's cliffside cave. I can't think of a moment from the sideways story that references "lighthouse".

As I suggested last week, this flash sideways did manage to tell yet another "Daddy Issues" story featuring Jack. And what a "twist" - this time Jack's the daddy! I'm not quite sure how I felt about this week's flash story. I had a hard time getting into Lost at first, and when I watched Jack's first flashback episode "White Rabbit" I hated it. I felt like I was being bludgeoned with clumsy writing. I was particularly frustrated with Christian's statement "Don't choose Jack. Don't decide." Because if Jack tried and failed... "you won't have what it takes." I decided I didn't want to waste any more time on this show, and I didn't watch it again until I caught "Maternity Leave" on TV, the episode that revealed Claire's missing weeks in the Staff Hatch. Season two of Lost drew me in with the crazy mythology Damon and Carlton developed after JJ Abrams left mid-season one, to direct Mission Impossible 3.

The story in "Lighthouse" is clearly designed as an extended reference to season one's "White Rabbit". This is the third flashback after the premiere and features Jack, just like "Rabbit". We saw that Jack's son is reading "Alice in Wonderland" and Jack says he read the book to David as a boy (as he did for Aaron in the original time line). Jack and Hurley return to the caves first discovered in "White Rabbit" and see Christian's empty coffin.

So, when we returned to that phrase "you don't have what it takes" early in this week's episode, I cringed. Then, seeing the payoff with Jack bonding with his sideways son David, I had a hard time connecting emotionally with the scene.


But the implications of what Christian said to Jack that day are huge. Lost has a major thing for using repeated phrases, and "choice" is a huge one. All through season six we are seeing a focus on choice. Aside from torturing Sayid, the Others want everything at the Temple to be done out of free will.

In "What Kate Does" the Others want Jack to come talk to them. Jack goes to Dogen's office to get answers, and Lennon says, "Good. We hoped you'd come here on your own." Dogen tells Jack that Sayid needs to take a pill, but he must choose to take the medicine himself. When Jack talks to Sayid, he looks at Jack pointedly and says, "If you tell me to take it, I will." (Sayid is "infected". Does this suggest the Man in Black represents the opposite of choice?)

You can actually see the importance of choice through the whole series. One key example is from season three, where Ben tells Locke, "When people join us here on this Island, they need to make a gesture of free will". John then engineers a situation where Sawyer will choose to murder Locke's father. (It's also interesting to note that Locke does this at the suggestion of Richard Alpert!)


Looking back, it seems very important that Jacob suggested Hurley should get on Ajira flight 316, but he touched him and said, "It's your choice Hugo. You don't have to do anything you don't want to". Later that same episode, Jacob tells Ben that no matter what the Man in Black told him, "I want you to understand one thing -- you have a choice." And this week, when Dogen confronts Hurley, Jacob says, "You can do what you want. Tell him you're a candidate." Jacob wanted Jack to go up to that lighthouse and destroy the mirrors. He couldn't just tell him to do it, Jack had to do it of his own will.

Now, think about how we've seen Christian Shephard on the show, and what it means that he told Jack, "Don't choose." Remember season four when Christian appeared to John, whose leg was broken, and told him to get up and turn the frozen wheel, but he could not help John do it. Christian claimed he could speak for Jacob, but he was a key figure in establishing the loophole to kill him. Based on all he said and did, it's very clear that the Christian we see on the Island was on the side of the Man in Black all along. (It even seems very possible what we think is Christian is actually the Smoke Monster.)


Flocke says to Richard, "You've been doing all this and he never even told you why? I would never do that to you. I would never have left you in the dark." And he tells Sawyer that Jacob has actually been manipulating them all. "Choices that you thought you made were never really choices. He was pushing you."

It's still very hard to figure out if there's a good side or bad side in this battle between Jacob/Light and his Nemesis/Dark. In some cruel way, they almost seem like two personalities of the same being, testing these people just to see what they will do. What is the end game here? I'm not quite sure what it all adds up to.

We did get a few more details about the dark side this week. I had speculated that Claire died in season four, and that's why she could see Christian and joined him in the Cabin. I also guessed that the Smoke Monster appeared in the form of those who die on the Island - and felt this was confirmed by the season three episode where he explicitly appears as Mr. Eko's brother Yemi. Maybe Claire was taken over by the Smoke Monster too?


Now we see that Claire is a physical being separate from the Monster, and she can touch (and kill) on the Island. She doesn't seem dead, as much as she is totally crazy (and channeling Rousseau.) She says she has a "friend" on the Island, and that she talked to her father. It turns out, her "friend" is none other than the Man in Black. So is Claire evil, or is she doing what she thinks is right? Think about how she must feel about the Others by now. They kidnapped her for weeks, and only Rousseau saved her. And the Others had taken Danielle's baby, and tried to kill Charlie, and any number of terrible things. Who knows what's happened the last three years...if Claire's really alive that is. Anyway, what Dogen tells Jack is that Claire's state is similar to Sayid, who apparently died and something came back in his body.

This is different from John Locke, whose dead body is on the Island and whose spirit seems to be gone - the Monster just uses his appearance. And I still can't tell if the appearances of Christian Shephard on the Island are MiB or not. What do you think?


Is Christian separate from the Smoke Monster or not? Am I just getting hung up on the fact that John's body remains, while the others (Yemi, Christian, maybe Claire) disappeared? What to make of the fact that the Island has multiple "Cerberus Vents" where the smoke emerges? Does the Man in Black have many "heads", so he's capable of controlling many different specters? Or could that refer to the fact that MiB and Jacob are like two heads of the same being?

Why does the Monster want everybody dead, but sometime he takes action while other times he spares people? What really happens to you when you "die" on the Island, and is it possible that it's not such a bad thing? Lots of people have turned up after they died - what if the Island can grant eternal life?

As we get close to the end of Lost, I find myself scratching my head just as often as ever. Despite ABC running ads that say "Questions will be answered" the show has continued to perplex even hardcore fans with its mysteries. The worst is fearing that there are too many mysteries left to ever get full answers. At this point, all we can do is hang on until the end.

Season six has been designed to reflect season one. We start with a two-hour premiere, then have episodes featuring Kate, Locke, and Jack. Next week's "Sundown" seems to continue that trend with a Sun/Jin episode. Sadly, we can't have a Charlie episode after that (I think?) so maybe they'll jump directly to Sawyer. If Locke gets along with his dad in the X universe, maybe Cooper was never a con man? Could it be that Sawyer's parents never died in the sideways universe? What would Sawyer do if he weren't a con man? Read more!

Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do!

Wow, this episode of Lost enjoyed a big return to favor with the fans. People are still counting "What Kate Does" in the bottom five episodes ever, but who could hate John Locke? Add a healthy dash of Smoke Monster plus one mind twisting reveal, and you have a recipe for big love!


This week, things were different in X world. Last week Kate X and Claire X sharing a taxi felt forced, the crying wife was a bit ridiculous (seriously, how could she not call Claire before she flew from freaking Australia?) and the baby coming at precisely that moment was just too much. But Locke's scene in the parking lot with the wheelchair lift and Hurley X's stupid yellow hummer was natural and fun (though I'm wondering how Hugo got out the door in the first place!). You have to give a lot of credit to Terry O'Quinn - he's been providing some masterful acting.

Speaking about his role last year in season five he said, "At the beginning of Season 5, I went to the director, Jack Bender, and said, “I’m just going to assume that I’m Locke and I’m indestructible,” and he said, “Good, go with that.” That was easy to play. It just made me kind of smarmy. I’m not sure exactly how to overlay this new person on Locke. It’s a little bit more confusing."

And this week he brought motivation, pathos and a sense of meaning to the sideways universe, after it was so dull last week. Maybe I just went along with it because it was so nice to see Locke X happy. I enjoyed seeing him smile at his string of bad luck on the lawn, and it's nice he's getting married to Helen this time. Plus it sounds like he's having a good relationship with his father, and inviting him to the wedding (so I wonder how he got in that chair?) It was also nice to see Rose help him deal with his expectations, and find him a job providing structure and guidance for young people. Just the right job for John, if he had never ended up on the Island.


But what are we to make of this sideways universe? At first, it seems like it doesn't really have any meaning - just a series of what ifs. That seems crazy to pull for the last season though! It must have some meaning. After what Flocke told Sawyer this week, it seems the sideways universe may be a time line free of Jacob's meddling - how these people's lives were really meant to turn out. A theory I'm starting to like more deals with time loops - the Losties are caught in a loop of time, and much like the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, they need to get off this wheel to find peace. The Losties keep trying and trying to fix things and escape this eternal loop, and that's why Jack has the cut on the plane - this is an iteration of the time loop that's "later" than now.

I'm really not sure, but let's get to the really good stuff. There's a whole new "John Locke" on the loose!


It's so cool to see the Smoke Monster stalking confidently across the Island. The MonsterView camera was fun, and gave a great sense of power. Maybe the Monster really was trapped in the Cabin before, because his power and range seem greatly expanded. But then again, it seems he may have a new limitation. The Monster has seemed to appear as Christian Shephard, Mr. Eko's brother Yemi, Ben's daughter Alex, and maybe various other animals and visions (Kate's horse? The Hurley Bird? Vincent?) Now Ilana tells Ben that the Man In Black is "stuck" in John Locke's form. If that's true, why now? Was it the death of Jacob? Did Jacob's nemesis break a big rule by kicking him into the fire? Does Ilana simply assume this is the case, since Ben told her it was the Monster who killed Jacob? And what does it mean that it was Ben who really stabbed Jacob?

Speaking of Ilana, it seemed really out of character to find her under the Statue weeping loudly in a corner. It would have been better if Ben had come around a pillar to find her, and she just wiped away a tear. She's been too tough up to this point to suddenly crumble, and she pulls it together too quickly after this.

As for the Smoke Monster's various forms - every previous time the body he used disappeared. Eko went to find his brother Yemi but the corpse was gone. And when Jack finally tracked his father's coffin to the caves, it was empty. This time, Jacob's people have the body. I wonder what it means to bury a body on the island as the Losties do, while the Others send their dead out to sea in a burning pyre. I'm starting to think that was a random detail a writer threw in, and they won't ever come back to it. We'll see.


There was some really great stuff at John's funeral. Ben's eulogy was amazing. "John Locke was...a believer. He was a man of faith, he was...a much better man than I will ever be." Ben is still wrestling with his feelings of inferiority and betrayal, after all he gave to the Island. And LOL line of the night when Lapidus turned and said to no one in particular, "This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to!"

It seems like John Locke may truly be dead - he found his final resting place on Boone Hill with the other 815 passengers like Shannon, Nikki and Paulo, and he was crossed off The List. Last year before the finale, Terry O'Quinn ventured this guess about Locke's fate, "I think, unfortunately, I think it’s ended for Locke. I don’t know how it’s going to end for this other guy. I’m sad. I miss John Locke, poor guy. He was a pawn.” I'm sad to say I have to agree with him. John was always a pawn in someone else's scheme, and this was just the biggest con of all. I do still have a theory that the Island can provide eternal life of some sort, so maybe we'll see John Locke again. And it's possible we're seeing a bit of him still alive somewhere in the Smoke Monster. Why did he yell John's catch phrase, "Don't tell me what I can't do!"


Fake Locke has a lot of confidence and things seem to be going his way, but last night we saw the first crack in his armor. Flocke had visions of a young boy, first with arms out covered in blood (Cain & Abel anyone? "How could you do this to me brother?!?") and then he appears again seeming more solid and running through the jungle. It was interesting that Richard couldn't see the boy while Sawyer saw him just fine.

There are rules in this confrontation that Jacob and his Nemesis must adhere to. Rules established by someone (maybe the Island?) I think Jacob and MiB are both trapped here by some greater power. Have we just seen that higher power appear as a teenage boy? The boy could be Aaron, exerting his special powers from another time line. Or he could be a new form of Jacob appearing to tell MiB he can't kill one of the candidates. Or it could be the Island itself, telling MiB he broke the rules by killing Jacob.

I really think the boy is Jacob reincarnated. Flocke has been working for years on this whole plan, but his reaction at seeing the boy suggests it's not going quite how he expected - Is that Jacob over in those bushes?!? It is weird that Richard wouldn't see Jacob, but Sawyer is a candidate who was touched by Jacob so it makes sense he would see him. Sawyer seeing the boy also came as a surprise to Flocke though, and I think there's still a possibility that he is some other power we haven't seen yet, likely a manifestation of the Island itself.


The Man in Black revealed to Sawyer that he is "trapped" on the Island, and I think Jacob was too. They are both serving some higher authority with the power to grant eternal life and heal fatal wounds. MiB says Jacob is searching for a replacement, but that the Island doesn't even need to be protected. It made me immediately think of Desmond's question from season two, "Are you him?" Jacob's predicament neatly mirrors Desmond's - fulfilling a duty to save the world, trapped in a sense and hoping every day for his replacement to come, so he could finally go home. But is he really even making a difference? Did he need to press the button, and does Jacob really need to defend the Island?

The Man in Black seems to be a master manipulator. He promises knowledge and answers, like he's the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. At this point many Lost fans are probably with me crying, "Give me the apple!"

Sawyer is certainly interested enough to risk his life climbing down that cliff. And boy, he sure sobered up fast, huh?


(Quick aside - did you catch the record Sawyer was listening to at the Barracks? Iggy and the Stooges "Search and Destroy" featuring some on point lyrics:
I'm a street walking cheetah
with a heart full of napalm
I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb
I am a world's forgotten boy
The one who searches and destroys
Honey gotta help me please
Somebody gotta save my soul
Baby detonates for me)

The sequence with Sawyer hanging on the cliffside and falling with the ladder was a bit much for me. It seemed a little bit like meaningless action just for the sake of tension. But, I have to admit, if he were able to plan those events, saving Sawyer by pulling him onto the ladder would be a great way for Flocke to win Sawyer's trust. Flocke did get Sawyer down to the cave, and a lot of people think it was Jacob's. I feel like Jacob's list is probably kept back at the Temple, and this is really Smokey's cave where he keeps his own copy of Jacob's list. He grabbed the chalk and crossed John's name off himself.

The big question is, why no Kate Austen on the list? It's impossible to answer that question at this point. We know that in season three John Locke was invited to join the Others, and he made a case for Kate to join as well. But when they told John "What Kate Did" he realized she was not a good person, and could never join them. Maybe that disqualified her, and her name was just off in a corner. I tend to think it's because the writers simply didn't see Kate as a legitimate candidate - they haven't done a good job writing her character and I wonder if they're just bad at writing women? It's possible that Lost is such a penis club that it didn't even cross anyone's mind to add Kate to the list. Or maybe her real purpose is to guide the lives of Jack and Sawyer, so one of them would be in the position to become Jacob's successor. The good news is that we won't have to wait very long for answers!

Finally, I usually don't like Lost reviews with long winded passages about philosophy (Doc Jensen, I'm looking at you) but this week I saw one I really like. Someone suggested that Flocke's cliffside cave might relate to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It's a story about people who see an illusion and believe it is the real world, and how ideas are more important than what our senses tell us.

Imagine a cave full of prisoners who have been bound their entire lives unable to move. All they can see are shadows on the wall cast by people passing behind them unseen, and the only sound they hear is the echoes of the passing. As far as the prisoners would know, the shadows and echoes are all that exists. Now, imagine you freed one prisoner and showed him that people walk by and cast the shadows. He couldn't couldn't name them and wouldn't even recognize them as fellow people. The shadows are still more real.

"Suppose further," Socrates says, "that the man was compelled to look at the fire: wouldn't he be struck blind and try to turn his gaze back toward the shadows, as toward what he can see clearly and hold to be real? What if someone forcibly dragged such a man upward, out of the cave: wouldn't the man be angry at the one doing this to him? And if dragged all the way out into the sunlight, wouldn't he be distressed and unable to see?"

But Socrates says that eventually the man would get used to life on the surface, and see the light. Now, imagine that he goes back to visit the prisoners in the cave. "Wouldn't he remember his first home, what passed for wisdom there, and his fellow prisoners, and consider himself happy and them pitiable? "Wouldn't it be said of him that he went up and came back with his eyes corrupted, and that it's not even worth trying to go up?"

Maybe the Man in Black is like the man removed from the from the cave. He's had his eyes opened, and he only wants to do the same for the others - starting with Sawyer.


Next week's episode is "The Lighthouse". Season one featured a two hour pilot with multiple flashbacks, followed by Kate-centric and Locke-centric episodes. If things continue on that formula, we should see a Jack episode next week. Get ready for daddy issues and fixing things! Read more!

Lost: the Bad Ones

See if you can guess what all these episodes have in common:

122 - Born To Run

214 - Fire + Water

314 - Expose

603 - What Kate Does

If you guessed that these are considered to be among the worst Lost episodes ever, you're half right. These were all written by a young pair named Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Yes, THAT Adam Horowitz! No...I'm just kidding! Or am I? Yes. I am.) These two writers have the ignominious honor of having written some truly terrible episodes. Can two young writers bring down an entire series?


I've already written a bit about Fire + Water. It was the season two episode where Charlie goes crazy from withdrawal and takes Aaron out into the ocean for some kind of baptism. Locke goes crazy and beats up Charlie before exiling him from the group. The episode doesn't seem to go anywhere or have any kind of lasting repercussions, and the survivors are acting out of character just to advance the plot of the episode. Which goes nowhere! In fact, Fire + Water is often considered the worst episode ever. Except for one.


Expose featured Nikki and Paulo, everyone's least favorite Lost couple. Many consider it to be the worst episode of Lost. (See here, here and here.) Not only was it an hour of flashbacks for people the fans hated, it was full of retcon revisions that placed them in just about every important moment from the series so far; from the original crash to Jack's Live Together Die Alone Speech to finding the Pearl Hatch before anyone else and discovering Ben's plan to use Michael to bring Jack to the Others. And they never said a thing! No wonder fans cheered when they died.


And there's Born To Run, a Kate episode that revealed the origin of her toy plane. The plane that was in the Marshall's case - Kate spent days playing Jack and Sawyer against each other, hoping one of them would open it for her. The plane she staged a bank robbery to get, before shooting all three of her accomplices. The plane she left behind after ramming through a police barricade in a stolen car and getting her childhood sweetie killed - a doctor who was about to perform an important MRI on a patient. And Born To Run was supposed to show how she's really not all bad, despite being on the run from the law. Oh, the burden of writing Kate episodes!

Last week's Lost really pissed off the fan base. It was called slow and boring. Fans cried out that the plot was hardly advanced, characters were needlessly mysterious, no one asked the right questions or gave good answers...wait that sounds like every episode of Lost! But seriously, to paraphrase Mr. Show, if you're going to write an epic TV serial you're going to have some rat feces in there. Especially in a Kate episode.

Everyone knows I'm a Lost superfan, but I can admit there are many flaws. I do feel that there are some poor episodes, but I don't hold it against the producers. They've given me more hits than misses. For instance, Eddie and Adam also wrote on of my favorite episodes - 321 - Greatest Hits. In the end, I think even a bad Lost episode is better than most of the stuff on TV today.


What are some of your least favorite episodes? Worst episode ever? Read more!