LOST: Cause and Effect

Over the past 5 years, LOST has been a show about duality. As early as the third episode, Locke pointed out the black and white pieces in a backgammon game to Walt, and "Adam and Eve" had a bag with a black stone and a white stone in their pockets. Over the years, we saw the clash of views between Jack, the man of science, and Locke, the man of faith, the clash between the survivors and the Others, the DHARMA Initiative and the Others ("hostiles"), Ben and Widmore, free will and choice, etc. Although it looked like a third group was rising up this year (the "shadow of the statue" people), it looks like they have been folded back into one side (more on that later). Last night (this early afternoon for me; "The Incident" was the first LOST finale I didn't see when it actually aired), we were introduced to what may be the ultimate LOST duality: Jacob, who wore white and advocated letting people have free will, and, um, that other guy (I will call him Titus for now, since he is played by Deadwood's Titus Welliver), who wore black and believed in avoiding conflict and letting things play out the way they are supposed to. In the episode's first scene, Titus chided Jacob for bringing the Black Rock to the island and perpetuating a cycle of violence (someone's been watching Battlestar Galactica), and then he vowed to kill Jacob... assuming he could find a loophole. And so it went from there.

"The Incident" wasn't as good a finale as "Through the Looking Glass" or "There's No Place Like Home" (still my favorite finale), but it is probably the most important finale yet (though that title will no doubt be passed on to next year's series finale). We finally met the mysterious Jacob, who was first referenced all the way back in the Season 2 finale, "Live Together, Die Alone", Jack fulfilled his destiny and became a sort of mini-Locke, while we learned a startling secret about the real Locke (more on that in a bit), and I don't think that the characters have ever ended a season in a worse situation. Sure, in "Exodus", Walt was kidnapped by the Others while Michael, Jin, and Sawyer were stranded in the ocean, and in "Live Together, Die Alone", Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were in the Others' custody, but the fate of half the cast is theoretically unknown (there's no way Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, and Hurley aren't coming back next year) and the other half aren't in a great place either. I'd say that there will certainly be a reckoning coming when Season 6 begins next January (so long...).

Before getting into some of the details, let me just say, JULIET! NO! Sorry, but I really wanted to see her finally get off the Island; unlike the rest of the castaways, she's been on the Island for 6 years, and she has taken advantage of nearly every opportunity to get off. She was even willing to return to an America she wouldn't recognize in 1974, but Sawyer persuaded her to stay. She ended up paying for her choice to help the man she once loved detonate the Swan Station because she doubted that the man she currently is in love with loved her back. In what may have the most intense scene all season, as the Incident caused the electromagnetic energy under the Swan to escape, a chain wrapped itself around her and dragged her into the pit. However, she was somehow able to survive, and ended up personally setting off the bomb. All reason suggests that she is dead (most people at ground zero don't survive), but let's think about two things: first, Jin somehow survived being blown up on the freighter last year, and second, I am still of the belief (and Miles gave me some backup) that setting of the bomb fulfilled their purpose in 1977, and instead of reshaping the future, they will just be brought back to 2007. Elizabeth Mitchell will be on another ABC show next year, but Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have said she will be back next year. That doesn't mean very much though, because they said the same thing about Daniel Roebuck back in Season 1, right before Arzt exploded. On the other hand, LOST and V may have different shooting schedules (Tamoh Pennikett was on both Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse this year, both of which aired on the same night; speaking of Dollhouse, I'm pretty sure that Alan Tudky is also going to be on V and I hope that doesn't take too much of his time as I want more Alpha next year). Also, did anyone notice the book in her house as a kid? "Mysteries of Ancient Americas".

The Incident is also responsible for Dr. Chang's prosethetic arm in the Swan orientation film, and it may be responsible for the anti-pregnancy thing on the Island. Unfortunately, that wasn't answered this year, and although we got to see the 4-toed statue again, we didn't see Richard Alpert barefoot, which we were promised. We also didn't see Illana and Bram shoot at Sawyer, Locke, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles in the outrigger, which I'm guessing should have happened at some point during this episode (remember way back at the beginning of the season?), which seems strange, because most of the time travel stuff was adequately explained. Speaking of Illana and Bram, their trek (with Frank Lapidus) ended at the 4-toed statue, where they met Locke, Ben, Richard, and Sun. They carried a mysterious box with them with contents that thoroughly shocked Lapidus; they claimed that whatever was in the box would give them some sort of leverage with an important figure and show that they had power over another. They have referred to themselves as "the good guys" a couple times (just like Ben at the end of "Live Together, Die Alone" and I saw a lot of parallels and counterpoints between that finale and this one; one is the second finale, the other is the second-to-last, one deals with the birth of the Swan, the other with its destruction, one sees Ben at his most powerful, the other at his least, and one shows Jack and Sawyer as compatriots and the other as bitter rivals), and about 2 minutes before they actually showed what was in the box, I deduced that Titus' body was in it. I thought its purpose was either to scare Jacob into respecting them or show him that they could help him (more likely the latter because of a flashback with Illana; most of the flashbacks this year showed Jacob interacting with the characters at key points in their lives). Well, I was right that Titus was involved, but his body wasn't in the box. It was John Locke's body. Ben was right, dead is dead, and ever since Ajira 316 crashed on the island, Titus has been impersonating Locke. Over the course of the episode, Titus-as-Locke slowly convinced Ben to kill Jacob, thinking this was the loophole he was looking for.

Oh Ben, what hath thee wrought? All Titus had to do was point out that Jacob was just another father figure who didn't love Ben to get him riled up. Why did Ben have to get cancer? Why did Ben have to watch his own daughter die? These were things that happened to Ben, but not once did Ben ever contemplate that his own choices were what caused his suffering. He chose to kill his father and the DHARMA Initiative, and he chose not to surrender to Keamy. Maybe Jacob disapproved of these. But I guess choice isn't something Ben Linus believes in. He certainly didn't believe Jacob when Jacob told him he had a choice. I'll give Ben this, though; the Smoke Monster scared the hell out of him by telling him to follow Locke (though I am now convinced that the Monster is at least an agent of Titus because, in addition to its command to Ben to follow Locke, both Titus and the Monster are represented by the color black... maybe there is a white smoke monster somewhere on the Island... wow, that sounds really racist).

With Jacob dead and Titus free to run wild (or free to make people not run wild?), things will certainly get interesting for the survivors next year. We still need to know what's up with Christian Sheppard and Charles Widmore, what happened to Claire, the origin of the Others (and the statue and Richard in particular), and who Titus is, among other things, but I am really excited to see how it ends. I just wish we didn't have to wait half a year...

Oh, by the way, what the hell, writers?! No Desmond?! Lame.

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