LOST 6x17/18: "Perfectly perfect in every way"

The finale of LOST was one of the most highly anticipated television events ever -or at least hyped as such. The ratings seemed to support this, as they remained fairly steady for the duration of the episode – an unprecedented occurrence for a single event that lasted two and a half hours. If you’re reading this blog, you undoubtedly watched the episode, and you’ve probably been debating it for the last couple of days anyway. So rather than recap the full episode, I’d rather share with you my reaction to it and a couple of parallels I drew.

I loved it. I haven’t been uniformly positive about every episode of the series, but this was an amazing finale. Yes, it was sentimental. No, we didn’t see Walt or get the answer to what the numbers really meant or get the Man In Black’s name. (It was Samuel, by the way, according to a video clip on E!'s site.) And yes, it got pretty dusty in the room numerous times on Sunday night. But I feel great about “The End”.


Lost 6x17/18: The End


Top moments from the finale:

• The Jack vs. UnLocke Crouching Tiger-like fight scene on the cliff. Epic in the storytelling, this was an epic moment in cinematography, as well.
  

• Jack hands the keys to the island to Hurley. Hurley was always a fan favorite, and probably the most innocent among them. He was also a very simple, but that also made him pure and a very similar choice to Jacob.
  

• Locke and Ben's conversation outside the church. It was good to see Ben's redemption continue and that he wanted to continue his life with Alex and perhaps Rousseau to repent for his on-island denial of her. To see John Locke kick away that wheelchair and embrace the island was a great moment.
  

• Juliet and Sawyer finally go Dutch. The moment in LA X when Juliet is dying in Sawyer's arms is paid off finally as they meet at the candy machine over, of course, an Apollo Bar. To see their recognition was perhaps better than any other "awawkening" on the finale. (Though I'm sure some Sawyer/Kate "Skaters" felt otherwise.)
  

• The callbacks to earlier episodes. From Jack and Locke looking down the golden cave waterfall toward Desmond reminding us of looking down the Swan hatch at him, to Juliet giving Sun a sonogram again, to Vincent and Jack in the bamboo forest, to the literal cork in the island that was keeping good in and evil out...
  

• The score. Michael Giacchino's score was at least as important as any other element of LOST, and perhaps even more important than most. Thankfully, they made the decision for the series to use Giacchino and a live orchestra to score the series. In case the ending of LOST didn't get you somewhere between teary and sobbing, Giacchino's score undoubtedly did. Or else you have no heart.
  

* * * *

Some of my thoughts on the episode generally...

One theory of the Big Bang is that the Universe will eventually attain a critical density after many billions more years of expansion. It will reach its maximum size and then begin to contract, pulling in on itself and eventually ending with a dense mass of hot matter – known as the Big Crunch – resuming to a state similar to that in which the Universe started. As this happens, at least as I imagine it, the closer the matter returns to the Big Crunch state, the faster it moves.

This is how I interpreted the last season of LOST. We saw the Universe of the Losties begin to contract into the Big Crunch (or the big church?). And as we neared the end of the season, the action began occurring faster – Jin and Sun got a quick goodbye, Widmore no more, Sayid see you later…

The series ended much the way it began, with Vincent finding Jack on the beach and a close up on his eye. Except now, as the Big Crunch completes its contraction, we see Jack die, content as he sees a plane fly overhead that the next Big Bang will take a different path.

* * * *





One other thought I’ve been stuck with since yesterday… The final scene in the apparently non-denomonational church (on the stained glass window were a Christian Cross, a Jewish Star of David, a Hindu Om, a Muslim Star and Crescent Moon, a Buddhist Dharma Wheel, and a Tao Yin & Yang) felt to me a lot like the final scene in the 1984 film, Places in the Heart, a movie I saw as a kid. The film, set in the 1930s South, ends in an idealistic scene of redemption where all the characters are celebrating communion together at a church – black and white, killer and victim, alive and dead, etc. Regardless of their places or their actions in life or even when they died, they were all together spiritually. In the final battle of science vs. faith on LOST, the writers make the statement that the winner is faith.

* * * *

I can understand the confusion or even frustration of many fans. The ambiguity of elements of the final episode – and especially the final shots of the wreckage of an Oceanic flight – might appear to negate all of what we’d watched for the last 6 years…perhaps even negating anything we’d learned about the mythology of the island – from Jacob and MIB to the Dharma Initiative to the Others and the 815ers. I don’t believe that’s the case at all. Everything that happened on the island happened. After all, we know that on LOST, Whatever Happened, Happened.






In the Jimmy Kimmel reunion/recap special, Jimmy points out that in the season premiere, “LA X”, as the turbulence starts to subside, Rose tells Jack, “You can let go now. It’s ok, you can let go.” This was the first clue – in retrospect, a massive one – that the sideways was all leading to Jack letting go and crossing over. However, that off-island sideways flashes were happening in the limbo of Jack’s mind as he was stumbling through the bamboo forest. (Coincidentally, bamboo is tied to the creation myth in some Asian cultures.) He lays down there, just as we’d first found him, with Vincent escorting him again to his next phase…letting go.


As Juliet is giving Sun a sonogram, she tells Sun that her baby is "perfectly perfect in every way." LOST had its missteps, but as far as an overall television experience, it was a near-perfect experience to me.


Thank you, LOST, for six amazing years of unprecedented television.



Drop your comments, interpretations or recipes below.

- Sean Salo

LOST 6x12 - Bizarro alt universe

Ilana’s performance blew me (and her) away. Libby and Hurley played the Memory Game. Desmond took defensive driving to a new level. The ship hits the fan and the Black Rock became the largest collection of toothpicks on the planet. The mysterious kid in the jungle got his hands on some Dharma Just For Men hair dye. Desmond doesn’t put up a fight when UnLocke pushed him down a well. Hurley, Jack, Sun, and Lapidus are chilling with the UnLocke Flock. And Sun and Jin STILL did not reunite.

Everybody loves Hugo…and everybody likes cheese.

Lost 6x12: Everybody Loves Hugo

In a world of conflict and strife, there’s but one fact we can all agree upon: everybody loves Everybody Loves Hugo! With the exception one meh moment (great that we got the answer on the whispers…a little disappointed in the explanation), this was all killer, no filler. Our sideways alternates on Lost and at least one of their on-island counterparts are now aware of each others’ existence. It’s only a matter of time before they bump into each other wearing the same outfits (awkward…).

So did you think it was a dy-no-mite episode too? Or do you feel like you got hit by a car? Comment below.


2004, Los Angeles:

At a charity event at the Golden State Natural History Museum, Hurley is being honored in a speech by Pierre Chang for his generosity in building a the paleontology wing that bares his name at the museum.

Nerd alert: What's up with the "experimental farming"? Doesn't that seem vaguely Dharma Initiative-like?


Hugo’s mom, instead of being proud and thrilled, is kind of disgusted with Hugo for not being in a relationship and has set him up on a blind date. “She’s going to love you. And if she doesn’t, we’ll find someone who does.”

At the restaurant, Hurley’s been stood up when Libby (!) approaches the table. She tells him that they’re soulmates, but Hurley doesn’t recall having met her. Just then Dr. C---blocker Brooks interrupts them to take Libby back to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where Hurley in the original timeline was a patient.

In a Mr. Cluck’s restaurant, Hurley’s mowing down a bucket of chicken, when Desmond approaches him, confused about how he knows him. Hurley opens up to him about Libby, leading Desmond to ask if he believed that she’d known Hurley. He tells Hurley not to give up on her. Order number 42 is called, and Des replies, “That’s me, brother. It was nice bumping into you.”


At the mental institution, Hurley’s in Dr. Brooks’ office with the big, framed photo of a tropical island on his wall. He convinces Brooks to allow him to see Libby only after donating a large sum to the hospital. As Hurley walks into the rec room of the hospital (a patient is playing Connect Four), he grills her on how she knows him. She explains that she saw a commercial for his restaurant, and suddenly she remembered a life that included him. Sadly, Hurley doesn’t remember living in a “bizarro alternate universe,” but he asks her on a date anyway.


Setting up the picnic on the beach on their date, Libby feels like everything’s similar…but off. She reassures him, though, that she’s there because she wants to be and they kiss. Hurley’s memory comes flooding back and the two of them remember together the other reality, and Libby knows she’s not crazy, and Hurley knows he was loved. And millions of ‘shippers’ hearts melted. For reasons yet unclear, Desmond was sitting in the car just off the beach watching the scene unfold.

Nerd alert: Nice shot, as Dr. Chang referred to him as a "beacon of light".

Question: Was he watching to ensure Hurley’s memory of the other reality has caught up with him?


In the parking lot of the school where the wheelchair-bound Locke, Ben and Arzt work, Desmond is sitting in his car. Ben knocks on the window to ask why he’s parked there and Des answers that he’s doing research on schools. However, he starts the car and guns it toward Locke, hitting him and propelling him up in the air, injuring him badly.


Question: Just me, or does this look like post Oceanic 815 crash-Locke?


Questions: Is this all just an elaborate way to get Locke to the hospital where Jack, Charlie, Claire and Kate are…and perhaps to ensure Jack the spinal surgeon has to work on him? Or was this an effort to give Locke some traumatic experience to have him catch up with those experiencing their memory in stereo? Or, was Desmond just conscious of UnLocke having pushed him into the well and just being a little vindictive?



2007, On the island:

At Libby’s gravesite, Hurley is talking out loud. He tells Ilana their story of unrealized love, as she leaves to prepare to go to the Black Rock for dynamite. The mysterious whispers return, and as they do, so does Michael (“Where’s my boy??!!”) who announces that if Hurley helps them blow up the plane, that he’ll be responsible for everyone who dies.


Question: Why the red flower? Any time we've seen red on LOST, it's been indicative of something, but usually impending death.


Ilana returns from the Black Rock with dynamite saying that blowing up the plane will protect them from UnLocke. “That thing is evil and God help us if it ever leaves this island, becau…” BOOM! She exits, Stage Arzt, and explodes into a million bits. (So much for the life of training to protect the Candidates…)

(Snagged from vetica on http://ack-attack.livejournal.com/)

Back at the UnLocke flock’s camp, UnLocke is carving a large stick. Sawyer asks if it’s a spear, but even UnLocke seems unclear on what it is.

Question: Didn’t it look as though he was starting to carve Mr. Eko’s Jesus stick?


Sawyer and Kate question what they were waiting for, and UnLocke says that just as they got to the island together, they have to leave together. “That’s the only way we’re getting off this Godforsaken rock.” Speaking of Godforsaken, Sayid returns and pulls UnLocke into the jungle to show him what was in the submarine: Desmond…tied to a tree. They look at each other with surprised, puppy-like, slightly cocked heads.

Hurley is looking through Ilana’s tent. He finds a book and a little pouch. Richard wants to get more dynamite, and Hurley concurs. Jack agrees to go along.

Nerd alert: The bag was likely the satchel Ilana had kept of Jacob’s ash.


Nerd alert: The book was a Russian copy of "Notes from the Underground" by Dostoyevsky. The book was considered the first existentialist novel. One of the claims in the novel is that "human needs can never be satisfied even through technological progress."


Sayid brings UnLocke to Desmond, who is clearly not a threat in this case, so UnLocke unties him, asking why Widmore brought him to the island. Having been held captive by Widmore, he can’t answer the question, but he does say that he tested severe electromagnetism on him. Asked how he could be sure that’s what it was, Des answers, “experience.” UnLocke asks to show Desmond something and helps him up.

Nerd alert: UnLocke actually gets Desmond’s hand, unlike in previous episodes when no one would take it.


Ben points out that Ilana worked blindly for Jacob, trained to protect them, and then she explodes after the island was done with her. Approaching the Black Rock, Alpert tells them to hang back, when Hurley runs screaming from the ship as it explodes. When asked why he did it, Hurley answers “I’m protecting you.”


He tells Miles that Michael told him to blow up the plane, and then explains that Michael is one of the people who come back from the dead to yell at him.

In the jungle, Desmond’s getting grilled about how long he’s been on the island, when they see a boy in tattered clothing behind them. If he’s the same kid who encountered UnLocke twice earlier in the jungle, why does he have brown hair. Des asks who he is and UnLocke tells him to ignore him. The kid gives an impish smile, seeing how UnLocke is frustrated, and he runs off.


Question: Is the kid Jacob? It’d seem he is with how he smirks at UnLocke. Or is the blonde kid Jacob, and the dark-haired kid Man In Black?

At the Black Rock’s burning remains, Hurley is trying to convince Richard that they need to go talk to UnLocke, explaining that Jacob is telling them to do so. Testing Hurley, he asks him to ask Jacob what the island is. Hurley is indignant, saying he doesn’t need to prove anything, telling him to go blow more crap up if that’s what he wants to do. But Richard is adamant that Jacob never tells people what to do and that they must not let UnLocke leave the island. Ben and Miles join Team Ricardo; Jack, Sun and Lapidus stay with Hurley.

Journeying through the jungle, Hurley tells Jack that he didn’t see Jacob, but Jack knows this already. Jack’s been trying to fix things since Juliet died, but now he’s trying to let other people decide what to do, and he’s trusting in Hurley. Just then the whispers begin, but Hurley has clarity about them and walks to find Michael in the jungle. There, in a matter of seconds, Michael blurts out that the whispers are other people trapped on the island because they can’t move on. (Question answered! (Lamely, unfortunately… So the island isn’t purgatory…except for those...in purgatory?))


Question: Is Michael on Hurley’s side? Working for UnLocke? Or is he a manifestation of Jacob?

UnLocke and Desmond approach the well…well, one of several wells, actually. Locke explains that there’s more than one, and that they’re entries to pockets of magnetic energy. He tells Desmond that Widmore brought him to the island to re-gain his power. Des seems unmoved at this, and UnLocke asks why he’s not afraid. “What is the point of being, afraid?” And at that, UnLocke shows him why he should have been, and pushes him down into the well.


Returning to the camp, Sawyer asks where UnLocke has been, just as Hurley walks into the camp and stumbles through an statement that he just wants to talk, non-violently. UnLocke hands over his knife, saying “you have my word.”

The others – Lapidus, Sun and Jack – walk out, and UnLocke looks at Jack, and gives him the same smirk that the kid gave UnLocke in the jungle…


Do you have sideways knowledge of what’s going on in LOST? If so, drop a comment below.

- Sean Salo

The redemption of Dr. Linus

"Uh oh!" Miles feels up Jacob’s ash. Richard visits an old haunt of his. Arzt and Ben scheme to overthrow the high school principal. Ben makes it right, sort of, with Alex. And Chas Widmore plays peek-a-boo with the island he's been working so long to get back to. "Cheese curds!"


Lost 6x07: Dr. Linus

As if Michael Emerson needs to justify the Emmy he won earlier this year, this was some killer acting as we see Ben’s redemption both on- and off-island. This was some of the most solid storytelling and writing of the season, if not the series. It felt as though this episode was back to season 1 in many ways – the beach camp, the scene of people returning to the beach in slo-mo, the pacing and character development – and it makes me happy.

Did you rank it high up there? Hit me up with your comment below.


2007, On the island:

Ben meets up with the Ajira crew, and tells them that Dogen and Lennon were killed by Sayid. He knows because “he was standing over their bodies holding a bloody dagger. So yeah, I’m pretty sure.” He recommends they go to the beach, since everyone in the Temple is dead.

Ilana asks Miles to touch the pouch of Jacob’s ash to find out how he died, and Miles uses Ben’s words against him when he says that Ben killed Jacob: “well, he was standing over Jacob’s dead body with a bloody dagger. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure.” As the Ajira folks walk away, Miles gives Ben an “uh oh!”


At the 815 beach camp, Ilana gathers items to use against Ben. She tells Sun that she has to protect her and Jin, because she’s not sure which of them is a Candidate to replace Jacob. There are six Candidates left.

Hurley’s trying to get Jack lost so that they don’t make it to the Temple. Richard appears in the jungle and they follow him instead to the Black Rock.

Ben is searching for useful items, and he comes across one of Sawyer’s girlie mags, and some books. Lapidus tells Ben he was supposed to have flown Flight 815, but Ben says that he’d have gotten to the island either way, apparently. Ben is nostalgic for the days when he was still in power on the island.

Nerd alert: Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister in the mid-late 1800s, was on the cover on the book that Ben found in Sawyer’s former tent. The title appears to be “Justice and Truth In Action”, which is an actual quote from Disraeli, though such a book title doesn’t appear to exist. Quote seems it could apply to Ben’s situation though.



Nerd alert: Ben doesn’t pick it up, but the other book in the tent was “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok, the title of which is a play on being chosen to be a Candidate, perhaps. The fact that Ben doesn't pick it up seems to be a nod to the fact that Ben isn't a Candidate.

Ilana chains up Ben and forces him at gunpoint to start digging his own grave as punishment for killing Jacob. Miles offers Ben some food, but Ben offers Miles the $3.2million he requested of Ben to keep quiet when the freighter was off shore. Miles asks, “why would I need your money when there are a couple of jabonies under there named Nikki and Paolo (Razzle Dazzle!) who got buried alive with $8million in diamonds on top of them.”

Ben tries to convince Miles that Jacob expected to be killed, but Miles says Jacob was was hoping that he’d been wrong about Ben all along, right up until the second the knife went through his heart. Ilana, tired of the chat break, shoots at Ben to get him digging.

Hurley asks Richard if he’s been time traveling. When he answers no, Hurley asks if he’s a Terminator or a cyborg or a vampire. They arrive at the Black Rock slave ship, and he answers a confused Jack about why they’re there by telling him that Jacob and all the others at the Temple are dead. Hurley confirms it saying that Jacob told him this would be true, and Richard is stung that Jacob didn’t come to see him. In a crisis of faith, Alpert heads into the Black Rock to kill himself.

Question: Was this the first scene that Hurley and Richard have been in together? If there’s another, I can’t think of it as I write this at about 2:30am anyway.

Inside the Black Rock, Jack asks Alpert if he’s ever been in there. “Yes,” Alpert says looking carefully at the handcuffs, which we’re led to believe held him ages ago. “After all the time on this island, this is the first time I’ve ever come back.” Alpert pulls out some dynamite, and says he can’t kill himself because Jacob touched him and gave him a “gift” that Alpert thinks of as a curse. The gift was a long life (full immortality?) if he devoted his life to Jacob in service. After certainly more than 100 years, Alpert feels duped to have been lied to now that Jacob's gone and wants Jack to light the fuse on the ship's dynamite. He does so, but doesn’t leave the ship and demands, instead, some answers from Richard.

Nerd alert: So we’re virtually confirmed that Alpert was a slave on the Black Rock. (I’m still holding out hope that he’s been there even longer and has been walking like an Egyptian on the island for centuries.)


Jack tells Richard that neither of them would die because Jacob was watching him from the Lighthouse, and therefore also special and with a purpose. Jack is 100% convinced this is the case, and the fuse stops burning just short of the dynamite stick. “Alright Jack, you seem to have all the answers…Now what?”, Alpert asks. Jack replies, “We go back to where we started.”

Nerd alert: Richard couldn’t kill himself with Jacob’s touch, Locke couldn’t hang himself in the hotel, and Jack couldn’t jump from the bridge. Michael tried to kill himself with a gun and running his car off a pier, but we never saw him touched by Jacob. But he was set free by Christian.

They head back to the beach where the 815ers started their stay on the island, and we see a trademark slo-mo, beautifully-scored scene of earlier seasons. The general seasons 1 or 2 vibe works big time.

Smokey shimmies his way to Ben and UnLocke’s. He offers Ben a deal to leave the island, but he tempts him by saying that he’ll need someone – Ben – to be in charge of the island. Just then, Ben’s ankle cuff falls open. UnLocke tells Ben where he can find a gun if he runs in the woods.

Ben bolts and gets to the rifle. Ilana catches up with him, but he pulls the gun on her. He tells her that he understands her. He killed Jacob because he was sacrificed for him, and Jacob didn’t even care – he did so to hold on to his power. Ben asks to leave in peace and go with UnLocke, because he’s the only one that’ll have him. Ilana says, “I’ll have you.” Ben turns around and heads back to the beach with her.

At the camp, Ben helps Sun with the tarp on her tent, and we’re introduced to the new selfless Ben Linus. The musical score begins to swell and we see Miles admiring a diamond – one he’d dug up from Nikki and Paolo’s graves, and then we see Jack, Hurley and Richard arrive at the camp.

We get a slo-mo run and embrace between the 815ers and the Ajira folks. And Jack looks off at Ben, standing alone, learning to accept his new role as one of them, vs. the leader.

And then the mindf#&k! Off the shore, we see a periscope rise up from the water and the camera takes us inside of the sub, where we see Charles Widmore!

Nerd alert: Has Jacob been waiting for Widmore and is he the man that he said was coming to the island in the Lighthouse episode?


2004, in Los Angeles:

Ben – or Dr. Linus – is teaching his history class, and he’s sharing the story of Napoleon, who was exiled to the island of Elba where he lost his power. “He might just as well have been dead.” (Sound like anyone we know? Interestingly, we end the episode with another exile FROM the island returning…)

Nerd alert: Elba is an anagram of Abel, as in Cain and Abel. (Thanks Amy D.!) Jacob perhaps as Abel, Man In Black/UnLocke as Cain?

Principal Reynolds tells him he needs to cover detention, despite Ben’s commitment to the history club. In the teacher’s lounge, Ben’s complaining about him to Arzt when Locke overhears them and recommends Ben become principal, sparking a fire in Ben he didn’t know was there.

Nerd alert: Arzt was complaining about formaldehyde on his shirt. After Arzt blew up on the island from the dynamite, Hurley has some Arzt on his shirt.

Dr. Linus is preparing a TV dinner for his father, a much more frail man in his late-60s or so. He tells Ben that he didn’t want a life for him of detention monitoring, and that’s why he signed them up for the Dharma Initiative. “Who knows how different our lives would have been if we’d stayed? Who knows what you would have become?”

Nerd alert: Nice composition that on the island, Ben killed his father with poison gas after a frank father/son conversation, and in this sideways flash Los Angeles, Ben is caring for his father and saving his live with another gas - oxygen.

A ring at the door and Ben opens it to see Alex Rousseau (!) there, who asks why Ben missed history club. He offers to meet Alex at the school in the morning to tutor her before the AP history exam.

Nerd alert: Alex’s last name was Rousseau, not Montand (her father's name). How did Alex and Rousseau wind up in Los Angeles?

At school the next morning, Ben is quizzing Alex on the East India Trading Company and the Charter Act of 1813. Alex is frustrated and nervous about getting into and paying for college at Yale. He offers to write her a recommendation, but she says that Principal Reynolds, as an alum, needs to write it. Alex tells Ben that Reynolds and the school nurse are having an affair and Ben gets a look of glee that he might be able to use this information against Reynolds.


Nerd alert: The Charter Act of 1813 granted the East India Company control of most of India…a deal that seems a little similar to the deal UnLocke later makes with Ben, no?

Ben tries to recruit Arzt to hack into the school nurse's email.


Arzt’s lesson is on species classification. One of the names on the blackboard is Carl Linnaeus, the father of “species classification”. Interesting, though I’m sure not related, since we don’t know what species Smokey is. Also interesting, though perhaps irrelevant is that Linnaeus was friendly with Swiss philosopher, Rousseau, which may have been a way to just tie back into the fact that Alex Rousseau was a guest in the show. Also, probably a coincidence, but Linnaeus - Linus?

Ben confronts Principal Reynolds with the emails, demanding he step down and recommends Ben for Principal. Reynolds turns the tables on him, showing that Alex needed a recommendation for Yale, and Ben wants Alex to have a good recommendation, that he’ll have to back off and not reveal the emails.


The next day, Alex reveals to Ben that Reynolds wrote the recommendation to Yale, and Ben tells her that they’ve got their old history club slot back. Ben was selfless for once. He finally redeemed himself, most especially to Alex.



So what did you think? Show me some comment love below.

- Sean Salo

Well, I guess I better put some pants on.

Locke takes a shower on his lawn. Hurley throws a little job stimulus Locke’s way. And then Locke gets his delivery of Ginsu Knives. (They can cut right through an aluminum can!) Sawyer does a little DIY home improvement. UnLocke plays hide and seek in the jungle with a child of the corn. And Sawyer and UnLocke enter a rock climbing challenge before UnLocke shows Sawyer some of his etchings.

Would you describe yourself as a people person? Hell yes!

LOST 6x04: The Substitute

There was a big delay on this recap due to work conferences and vacation. So we have, for the first time, a guest blogger – my brother Phil. Though in reality, I usually collaborate on theories with him into the wee hours after an episode airs, so he's getting credit for the first time even though he's critical in shaping my recaps. Glad we’re getting this up since it was a killer episode. (And he's gonna hate me for changing the name to UnLocke...)

Comment below with your thoughts!

2007, On the island:

We start out with Smokey searching the island for his machete, which then transforms into UnLocke. (Question: Does this mean all the times we saw Locke with the machete in earlier seasons it was actually Smokey? Has Smokey been – or has he been connected to – Locke since it first dragged him through the jungle after the crash of 815?)

He proceeds to cut down Alpert from the tree he had him trapped in. It seems as though UnLocke has always wanted Alpert to be on his side, however Jacob has kept Alpert’s favor with by stringing him along with dangling carrot. UnLocke tells Alpert he would never have kept him in the dark like that. As he is talking a young child appears bathed in light and UnLocke runs off after him.

Question: Was the boy an older Aaron?... Or a younger Jacob? Or could Aaron actually be Jacob? Aaron is descended from Jacob in the Bible.

Meanwhile Ben is in the foot of the statue with Ilana. He tells her that UnLocke had killed everyone including Jacob. Ilana then picks up Jacob’s ashes from the fire pit Ilana tells Ben that UnLocke is recruiting.

Question: So is the ash used to circle Jacob’s old cabin the ashes from previous Jacob’s replaced by new candidates?

Back in Dharmaville, UnLocke finds Sawyer drunk in the old house that he lived in with Juliet. It seems that UnLocke enjoys when people are at their darkest points (easier to recruit them then?). UnLocke convinces Sawyer he will tell him exactly why he is on the island.

Nerd alert: Sawyer was blasting an old album from his life with Juliet in 1977. Iggy & The Stooges' "Search and Destroy" was on. The lyrics are:

"I am the world's forgotten boy, the one who searches and destroys. Honey gotta help me please, Somebody gotta save my soul... I'm the world's forgotten boy
The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy"

Meanwhile back at the batcave…errr..the beach, we find the rest of the Ajira flight standing over the body of Locke. (Question: Was that a spider on his face…the same paralyzing spider as Nikki and Paulo? Or just a crab or some other insect?). Ilana convinces Sun to follow her by telling her that Jin is at the Temple. But Sun insists on first burying Locke.

Sawyer and UnLocke are on the way to find out the answer to why Sawyer is on the island, when the run in to the young boy again. UnLocke is amazed that sawyer is able to see him, because Alpert hadn’t. UnLocke chases him into the jungle, where the boy tells UnLocke that he can’t kill Sawyer – it’s against the rules. And channeling John Locke himself, UnLocke says “don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

Sawyer who was left behind, is confronted by a scared Alpert, who tries to convince him to go to the Temple. Alpert tells him that UnLocke is going to kill everyone and runs off in to the jungle before UnLocke returns. Sawyer continues to follow UnLocke in to the jungle, as we find out that Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a little after UnLocke’s time. (How old is he?). Sawyer pulls a gun on UnLocke, who then convinces him that he is trapped, just as Sawyer is. He promises Sawyer a way off the island, and On the beach Ilana explains that UnLocke cannot change into another person’s appearance now…he is stuck in UnLocke form. After Ben apologizes for having killed Locke, they bury him.

On the other side of the island, UnLocke is leading Sawyer down in to a cave positioned in the side of a steep cliff. In the cave, we see a scale with a black rock and a white rock on either side. The black rock is just slightly out-weighing the white rock.

Nerd alert: Black Rock – black rock

UnLocke throws the white rock in to the ocean. Inside joke, he says. UnLocke leads Sawyer in to the cave and shows him over a hundred names with numbers next to them, written on the walls and ceiling, most of which are crossed out. He tells Sawyer that this is the reason that they are all on the island. The only names not crossed out are 4 - Locke, 8 - Reyes, 15 - Ford, 16 - Jarrah, 23 - Sheppard, and 42 - Kwon. UnLocke lets Sawyer know that in some point in his life, he had met Jacob. And since that point Jacob has been in control of all of Sawyers decisions in life. UnLocke tells him that he now has three choices: die; become the new Jacob; or help UnLocke get off this island. Sawyer then chooses to help him leave the island. Despite Sawyer’s crappy life back in the real world, he gives a definitive “Hell yes!” to getting off the island.

Question: Was the white rock slightly less heavy because UnLocke had been using it to cross out the names of those on the cave walls?

Nerd alert: Again, due to the diligence of others, here is the full list that can be made out of names and corresponding numbers.

2004, Los Angeles:

We start out with Locke driving himself home from the airport, to a waiting Helen. Apparently she never left him in the sideways reality. She helps him out of the lawn shower and in to the bathtub, where we find out that they are in the middle of Wedding preparations. Helen wants to just make the wedding a family event, including John’s Father? (How did Locke become paralyzed in this sideways reality, if he’s still in contact with his father?) Helen finds out about Locke’s run in with Jack at the airport and tries to convince John to call him, saying that it might be “destiny”.

Nerd alert: While choosing fabrics for the wedding, Locke chooses the light fabric, but Helen convinces him to go with the dark choice.

Back to work at Hurley’s box company that had burnt down in the original timeline, Locke had lied to the company (and to Helen) about a seminar so he could go on his walkabout. He is promptly fired by Randy Nations (a huge douche). Lucky for John he is parked next to lucky Hurley, who promises him that his temp agency will set him up with any job he wants.

At the temp agency we see Locke is being questioned (much like the seemingly nonsense test questions he was given by Alpert when he was a child.) Locke, not understanding the line of questioning, asks to see the supervisor and in walks Rose! She proceeds coax Locke into accepting his life, as she did with her terminal cancer.

Question: Is it me, or does the painting behind Rose look vaguely similar to some of those in Widmore's office that Claire's ex, Thomas, painted?

Back at Locke’s crib, we see John trying to get up the courage to call Jack. Locke confesses to Helen he was fired and about what he was doing on his trip. Helen lets John know that all she cares about is him, and that she loves him just the way he is.

Nerd alert: Helen’s shirt says Peace & Karma on it. Also, she’s wearing black nail polish. Is this a sign – coupled with her pushing him to pick the dark fabric earlier - that this reality is shaped by the Man In Black/Smokey?

We next see Locke starting to accept his condition, by substitute teaching. Luckily he makes friends with a dweebie European History teacher (spit-take!) named Ben Linus.

Questions:

Is Jacob really protecting the island…or protecting the world from Smokey by keeping him trapped on the island?

Why isn’t Jarrah’s name crossed off the cave wall? Why wasn’t Kate’s name on the wall? Why are our 815ers' names so much bolder than the others'?

Was the Black Rock Smokey’s Flight 815, bringing his follower’s to the island? And that is why Smokey is so disappointed that Alpert chose to follow Jacob?

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- Phil Salo (and Sean Salo)