It's getting harder and harder to keep up with these posts, but dammit, I'm going to do it. This week's episode showed us Jacob's system for keeping track of the names and locations of the candidates (I'm guessing that the cave was Titus' method of keeping tabs on Jacob). Jacob has a magic lighthouse that he can use to spy on the lives of his candidates, and the numbers refer to the degree at which he positions the mirror to see a given person (Jack is at 42 degrees, out of 360). Interestingly enough, someone new might be coming to the Island, someone who is at 108 degrees (108 is the total of the numbers). Is this person going to have the sum traits of Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer, Locke, and Jin/Sun? Will it be Desmond, the person who "the rules" don't apply to?
Across the Island, Jin and Claire got reacquainted, and Claire is even crazier than Rousseau. She is convinced the Others have her baby, and no one can tell her otherwise. Jin briefly convinced her that the possibility of Kate taking her baby was remotely possible, but he quickly reassured her that he saw Aaron at the Temple when he realized what she might do to Kate (or himself) if she came to believe Kate had Aaron. Couple other things about the new Claire: she has a (very professional, factory-massed produced looking) cradle in her tent, which is home to the creepiest skull baby thing I've ever seen. Also, she's been hanging around with Titus, which might explain some of the "darkness" inside her that Dogen referred to (did anyone else think of Sweeney Todd when she referred to Titus as her "friend" in that really creepy way?). In the alternaverse, Jack is still divorced (most likely from Sarah, although she did not appear, and they never mentioned his wife by name, so he could have ended up marrying Libby for all we know), but he has a son. A son who sees Jack the way Jack sees Christian. David Sheppard is a genius pianist who hides this from Jack because he can't stand the pressure that Jack was unknowingly putting on him. Fortunately, good things happen in the alternaverse, and instead of continuing to live through a poor relationship, the two talk things out and Jack explains that he will always be proud of his son, and promises to be less intense. If the characters in the Island universe could do this, who knows what kinds of troubles they could have avoided?
Up next: Most likely next week's episode, but there is some HBO show I've been talking about...
Austen. Littleton. Hume. Straume. Lapidus. Linus. Kwon. I'll get to what these names mean soon. Needless to say, "The Substitute" does what LOST does best, answering questions with more questions, and these names have to do with said answer. However, the episode was great, and although we have more questions, the answers we were given have been hinted at and alluded to throughout the series, so they made sense and do not open up brand new areas to explore (unlike learning that the Others are stealing kids because women die during pregnancy).
The flash-sideways this week focus on Locke, who, despite being in a wheelchair, is living a rather good life, all things considered. Locke in the alternaverse is much better off than the real Locke: He and Helen are engaged, neither of them are angry at the world, Locke and his dad have a good relationship (which means that he ended up in a wheelchair some other way), and he has made peace with his condition. But, Locke being Locke, he just can't seem to avoid screwing things up. He gets himself fired from his job at the box company because he tried to go on his walkabout when he was supposed to be at a conference (what do box companies have conferences about?). But in this reality, he ends up on his feet (not literally). Helen understands why she lied and Hurley, the owner of the company, comes along and hooks him up with a substitute teacher job... at the same school where alterna-Ben teaches.
On the Island, Sun, Lapidus, Illana, and Ben bury Locke's body and begin their trek to the Temple. Meanwhile, Titus-Locke, after thoroughly scaring the crap out of Richard (it was interesting to see Richard showing fear), tried to recruit Sawyer to join his quest to get off the Island. Sawyer followed Titus (reluctantly and as snarky as ever) to a cliffside cave that Titus claimed to hold the answer to why everyone was on the Island: It was one of Jacob's old hang-outs where he scrawled the names of various people on the walls and ceiling (all of which were accompanied by one of the numbers). Many names were crossed out, but those that weren't included Sheppard, Ford, Reyes, Kwon, and Jarrah. The are the names of the candidates for the position of Island protector (i.e., the new Jacob).
The show reminded us that in last year's finale, Jacob visited most of the major characters, including Kate and both Kwons. However, Kate's name is not on the wall, and there is only one Kwon (Titus mentions that Jacob didn't know if Jin or Sun was the special one). Other people not on the wall are Desmond, Frank, Miles, Illana, or Ben (though the bigger surprise would have been if his name had been on the wall). So now we know why they are there. The question becomes, what was Jacob looking for in a replacement? In a substitute?
Three episodes down, fifteen to go. Overall, this was definitely not one of my favorite episodes, but it had some interesting scenes between Jack and Dogen. It also reintroduced the 2007 version of Claire (after briefly seeing her for the first time since Season 4 last week). In this episode, we saw what happened next with the alternaverse Kate and Claire (is every flash-sideways going to begin at LAX and show the characters' immediate journey, or will we pick up months later with a few of them; for example, showing Sayid after a few months of futilely looking for Nadia would be interesting). The pair start off on bad terms when Kate hijacks the cab Claire is in, but they end up as buddies when Kate (foolishly) takes Claire to the hospital even though she is a fugitive. Claire's doctor is none other than Ethan Rom, but in this reality, he goes by his family name of Goodspeed. And when Claire mentions the name Aaron, Kate seems to recognize it, similar to the way alterna-Jack seemed to realize something wasn't quite right last week.
Back on the Island, Sawyer escaped the Temple and Kate and Jin went after him. They told Aldo (played by Rob McElhenny of Always Sunny fame), but each had their own motives for leaving. Jin wants to find Sun, and Kate wants to apologize to Sawyer before fulfilling her intention of finding Claire. The scenes with Sawyer in the Barracks and on the dock are some of the better aspects of this episode. Back at the Temple, Dogen and Lennon perform torture on Sayid to see if he is "infected." I liked how, eventually, Dogen gave up a bit of information (are we finally going to learn about the sickness?), but why did he not just outright tell Jack? Also, it's pretty clear now that I was wrong about Sayid; his body is not a vessel for a reincarnated Jacob. The question now is, why did Jacob tell Hurley to bring Sayid there? And why did the ankh contain a message instructing the Others to heal Sayid? I would say that Hurley's dead people are manifestations of Titus, but it appears that (1) he can't leave the Island (and Hurley was seeing people off-Island), and (2) Titus can only be in one place at a time (as opposed to the First Evil from Buffy, who is everywhere). Finally, Claire returned in 2007, sporting a rifle and some messed up clothes/hair. The show treated this like a big revelation, but they have been hinting at (if not outright confirming) this plot point for a while now.
Sadly, Ben, Richard, and Titus were not in the episode, but next week's episode is most likely based on Locke/Titus (it's called "The Substitute," which is how Eloise Hawking referred to Locke's body when she told Jack he needed someone to stand in for his father on Ajira 316).
Up next: I swear I'm going to talk about Rome at some point...
Because this is LOST's final season, I may try to do one post for each episode. Whether I follow through on this will depend on whether I think each episode fully merits its own post and when I can get access to the episodes. I forget whether or not I've said that I have a class the runs through the first half of the episodes' run time. I wanted to get to this sooner, but life is hectic. Anyway, like I predicted, the scenes of the alterna-verse take the place of flashbacks/forwards (the producers refer to them as "flash-sideways," so I will as well until I get tired of that word). The teaser segment this week shows Flight 815 successfully getting through turbulence. But this is just one of many changes to the timeline in this alternate reality. We also learn in the opening segment that Desmond never crashed his sailboat onto the Island when we see him ON THE PLANE. Also, the Island is underwater.
After the first commercial break, things pick up on the Island, with the characters who were at the Swan site in 1977 back in the present (2007). The characters try to reorient themselves (also, Sawyer kicks Jack in the head (!) and yells at him for being "wrong"). Juliet survived being at ground zero and called for help, but died shortly after Sawyer was able to dig her out and give one final goodbye. Throughout this, Jack sat dejectedly off to the side, realizing that his plan to avoid all the pain and suffering caused by coming to the Island simply resulted in the death of Juliet and the very likely death of Sayid, who obviously did not have long for the world. But when all seemed lost for Sayid, Jacob's ghost appeared to Hurley (are what Hurley sees "ghosts"?) and told him to bring Sayid to the Temple.
At the statue, Titus-in-Locke's-body continued to rock as he explained some of his plans to Ben, including his master plan of "going home." He also explicitly revealed himself as the Monster (let's not resort to name-calling) when he took out Bram and a bunch of the Shadow of the Statue guys (so is Illana the only one left?) in front of Ben. In another great instance of one character man-handling another, Richard threw Ben around and showed him Locke's body when Ben lied about the situation inside Jacob's home. When Titus-Locke emerged, he expressed his "disappointment" with Richard and the Others, knocked Richard out, and started a trek toward the Temple. But first, he said something to Richard that lent credence to one of my friend's theories: My friend stated that he believed that Widmore was a crew member aboard the Black Rock, while Richard was one of the slaves in transit. Titus-Locke commented that it was good to see Richard out of his chains...
At the Temple, the characters encountered various Others, including flight attendant Cindy as well as Zack and Emma. They also met Dogen and Lennon, who seem to be the Others in charge of the Temple. Using a strange spring inside the Temple (whose water had mysteriously changed from clear to murky), the Others were (eventually) able to revive Sayid. The question is, did they revive Sayid, or did the reincarnate Jacob in Sayid's body? I immediately thought the latter, but an interview with Lindelof and Cuse gives evidence for the former. They pointed out that the spring is what allowed the Others to revive young Ben in Season 5. On the other hand, they said that Ben wouldn't be the same. On that note, I'd like to point out how upset with myself I was that I did not make the connection between the spring and young Ben's revival. The producers have said that many answers will have to be inferred, including why Sun did not end up in 1977; they will give us the means to figure things out, but we have to connect the dots ourselves. We also learned two other things about Jacob and Titus this episode: The ash surrounding Jacob's cabin creates a barrier that is impenetrable by Titus (which is why Illana was so concerned when they noticed the circle of ash was broken). In addition, it appears that the ankh is one of Jacob's symbols. To have Jacob represent life and Titus death is a bit simplistic, but that may provide a starting point through which to view their alignments.
Finally, the flash-sideways. Like I said at the end of last season, the plane crash had an aggregate positive effect on the characters. We already see that Charlie is much worse off for not crashing, while Kate continues to make life hard for those she encounters. After getting off the plane, she was able to escape from Marshal Mars and ended up commandeering a taxi containing Claire. But even more strange is the fact that there are differences between the alterna-verse and original timeline that are not a result of the plane not crashing. Shannon was not on 815 in this reality, leading to Boone sitting near Locke in coach, instead of in business class. Hurley sees himself as the luckiest person alive. And check out this rather large difference that occurred years before 815 took off:
My theory on the flash-sideways is that Titus can see both realities and will be able to merge the consciousnesses of the characters with their alternate selves. He will try to explain that their actions were short-sighted and self-centered because they thought that by changing the past, they would be the only ones affected. Why he wants to show them this, I'm not sure yet.
As I said, I will try to do a post for each episode, but in between, assuming I have time, I will continue the stuff about Rome and The Wire.
It's getting harder and harder to keep up with these posts, but dammit, I'm going to do it. This week's episode showed us Jacob's system for keeping track of the names and locations of the candidates (I'm guessing that the cave was Titus' method of keeping tabs on Jacob). Jacob has a magic lighthouse that he can use to spy on the lives of his candidates, and the numbers refer to the degree at which he positions the mirror to see a given person (Jack is at 42 degrees, out of 360). Interestingly enough, someone new might be coming to the Island, someone who is at 108 degrees (108 is the total of the numbers). Is this person going to have the sum traits of Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer, Locke, and Jin/Sun? Will it be Desmond, the person who "the rules" don't apply to?
