Before I get to this week’s episode of Lost, let me discuss the super duper hot topic being debated — the argument that has managed to completely dwarf that whole “who will Kate end up with?” thing. Namely, is Aaron considered one of the Oceanic Six?
The sides seem pretty evenly split, with advertisements indicating that he is, while logic and reasoning argues that he isn’t. People who have read this column the past few weeks (and those that visit my BLOG — cheap plug!) know that I very strongly believe that he is NOT. First and foremost, he wasn’t on the flight. Secondly, at Kate’s trial, Jack clearly states that eight people survived the crash, and that two later died. Since the entire premise of the Oceanic Six is that they are the ONLY ones that survived the crash, and that everybody else is dead, Jack would never indicate that there was a survivor that did not get rescued. And since (once again) Aaron wasn’t on the flight, he couldn’t have been one of the six survivors. In conclusion, the Oceanic Six only includes people that were on the flight (hence why Ben is not considered one, either. Nor would Desmond, Juliet, or any other person not on the flight who may or may not get off of the island), and since Aaron wasn’t on the manifest, he is not a part of that sextet.
However, previews and advertisements seem to argue the contrary. Last week, we were told that we’d find out the rest of the Oceanic Six, and Sun was the only person revealed that episode. Under my logic, that would only name five people (Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, and now Sun). Even more significantly, the ad at the end of this episode explicitly stated “All members of the Oceanic Six have been revealed” and included a quick clip of toddler Aaron.
In response, i will note that the creators/writers are not responsible for the previews. Those are people at ABC. Remember last year, when one of the ads said that we’d find out what happened to all those people that the Others kidnapped, only to ultimately find out absolutely nothing? There was a fair amount of backlash over that, and the creators defended that they had nothing to do with that, and have no control over the ads ABC airs. To that end, I will go as far as to argue that ABC (perhaps erroneously) considers Aaron a member of the Oceanic Six, and as such has included him in these ads. Until the SHOW explicitly refers to Aaron as one of the Oceanic Six, I believe that this has either been a misinterpretation, or we’re being set up for a twist (like, for example, Ben has stolen the identity of one of the passengers, or one of the survivors was slyly revealed in a previous episode). Hell, maybe Vincent was one of the dogs at Ben’s vet office, and it actually refers to him!
Perhaps I’m in denial or simply too stubborn, but that’s my line of thinking and I’m sticking to it.
I’m interested in what all of you readers think. I’ve posted a poll on my blog (link above, and another one below) asking whether or not you consider Aaron a member of the Oceanic Six. Please drop by and vote!
Anyway, when Michael was revealed as Ben’s spy, I had many, many reservations, the biggest of which was why he would help the people that kidnapped his son, forcing him to murder two innocent women and betray his friends? This episode did an absolutely wonderful job of bringing attention to all of those questions, and providing believable, convincing, and intriguing answers.
So it seems that Michael and Walt successfully returned home, but home isn’t all that sweet for the Dawson family. Overwhelmed with guilt, Michael confessed to Walt what he had done, possibly damaging their relationship beyond repair. As a result, the lad is now living with Michael’s mother. Oh, and they’re living more or less under the radar, as to not bring attention to the fact that they’re, ya’ know, alive (perhaps reinforcing my prediction that Michael, under an alias, is the person in the coffin — note that (a) he wants to commit suicide, (b) he’s living under an assumed identity, which seems purposely unrevealed, and (c) he’s estranged from his son, explaining the lack of attendees at his funeral). This in itself is somewhat interesting, as I find it pretty surprising that, despite what he had done, Michael wouldn’t alert the proper authorities about the island and the whereabouts of the other survivors. In fact, I thought he would do that as a measure of redemption.
But of course, that’s another reason I really enjoyed this episode. Despite all of the revelations made (and there were a lot), there’s still a lot to be told. We still don’t know what happened between the period of Michael and Walt leaving the island to when they got home. Did that little motor boat go the entire way? Were they rescued by another boat midway? Did the mysterious time vortex play a part? We also didn’t see the circumstances behind Michael confessing to Walt what he had done. Or Walt’s reaction to just leaving everybody else behind.
Now, what we did find out… First off, it seems that you can take the man out of the island, but you can’t take the island out of the man. Despite returning home, the island still has some control over Michael’s (and presumably the Oceanic Six) actions, the biggest of which is that it won’t allow him to commit suicide. This was particularly interesting, as his distressed “I’m sorry” just as he was about to do the deed echoed, to a great extent, Jack’s suicide attempt in last year’s finale. Along with that, if Michael WAS the person in the casket, and he had evidently killed himself, it may explain why Jack had the sudden desire to attempt suicide himself. If Michael successfully killed himself, perhaps Jack felt that the island no longer controlled their actions, leading him to give it the old college try.
Nevertheless, this tidbit of information seems to imply that the island won’t “let” you die if there’s still work that must be done. One must wonder, do these rules apply to people still on the island? Locke has survived numerous inflctions that probably should have taken his life. Yet at the same time, Charlie successfully gave up his life (a form of suicide, I suppose) to save others. Clearly, murder is possible (we’ve seen several flight survivors and Others killed), so people clearly aren’t impervious to death. Very interesting stuff, indeed.
What makes the matter even more intriguing is the fact that The Others are aware of this phenomenon. On that note, it was absolutely awesome seeing Tom again, and I guess we finally got confirmation that yes, he is gay (and able to nab a pretty young guy, at that). Aside from him being my favorite Other, I was really disappointed about his death because we never really found out what he does. It appears that most of The Others are doctors and scientists, which he is not (as far as we can tell). Nevertheless, he appears to be relatively high ranked, so he must serve a somewhat important role. I suppose that, between Ben and Juliet, we can still find that out through flashbacks, but it was still a let down. in fact, that’s a HUGE reason why i hope Rousseau is not dead, because she DEFINITELY needs a flashback episode. I think it’d be really, really interesting seeing the back story of what happened to her crew, especially with all the knowledge we’ve acquired. I’d be highly disappointed if we never get a Rousseau flashback episode. I suppose it’s possible for Locke and his crew to discover Rousseau’s body, only to have Miles communicate with her ghost, and through him she can receive the flashback treatment (incidentally, this method could conceivably be used for other departed characters as well).
For what it’s worth, I do believe she’s still alive. Notice that when Karl was shot, we saw an entrance and exit wound, which was not the case with Rousseau. This leads me to believe that her wound was not as severe (if that makes sense). Then again, I refuse to believe that Aaron’s part of the Oceanic Six, so take my opinion for a grain of salt.
Back to the adventures of Michael and Tom. Via Tom, we received our third confirmation (I’m optimistic) that Widmore is responsible for the freighter and the the feigned flight 815 discovery. We also got details about HOW (and why) he pulled it off. If people believe that the plane has been discovered, they won’t bother searching. In turn, they won’t find the island, and its mystical powers will be his to exploit. I had previously mentioned that my optimism is based mostly on my frustration with fans who constantly moan and groan about not getting answers, only to say “I’m not sure if I believe him” when answers are provided. However, another case I will make is that we’re relatively late in the series (past the halfway point), so they really can provide significant answers that can continue to develop, without an ultimate resolution, until the conclusion of the final season. If this were the first or second season, I’d be a little more suspicious that this is a red herring. But at this point, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
There have also been some complaints about the overall timing of the episode. We see that Tom is in Manhattan, yet there doesn’t seem to be any stretch of time that he’s not on the island. While I understand this complaint, there’s also no reason for us to believe that Tom is in New York City for any extended amount of time (as far as we know, it’s only for that night, and the call he later makes when MIchael arrives on the freighter could be from another visit to another location, or perhaps even the island). Along with that, there’s no reason to believe that the trip from the island to the mainland takes any longer than a day. For all we know, the entire trip (including travel time) could have only taken two or three days. And that’s provided they’re not doing any wacky time traveling or teleportation.
As I noted earlier, I had some trepidation about Michael being a spy for the people who, in a roundabout sort of way, were responsible for his downfall. Nevertheless, I was highly satisfied with their explanation. With his life in complete disarray, Michael is unable to live with the terrible things he had done to save his son (who, incidentally, no longer wants anything to do with him). Unfortunately (for him), he can’t even end his own misery (on that note, how disheartening was it seeing Michael pawn off Jin’s watch — the one item symbolic of the only true friendship that had developed during his time on the island — for a gun with bullets?). With this in mind, he’s helping Ben in order to redeem his past sins. And he’s not even doing it for forgiveness, per se. He’s just hoping that this will fulfill whatever expectations the island has of him, so that he CAN commit suicide (isn’t that lovely?) And he’s not even helping Ben to help Ben….he’s doing it to save the lives of the flight 815 survivors, people that he does truly care about.
More than anything else, I think this episode did a fantastic job of reminding us that Michael isn’t a bad person, he’s just a person who has been forced to make bad decisions. Had they never brought back Michael, I think he would have been remembered as a villain. I do somewhat expect Michael to die, possibly even by the end of this season (if he’s not the one in the casket), but I think it’ll happen in some selfless way. In the end, I do believe he’ll receive redemption — perhaps not from the characters, but in the eyes of the viewers. It’s interesting that this episode was about redemption, and it did a lot to redeem Michael in my eyes. You really sensed Michael’s internal struggle and sense of grief , distress, and remorse. And you also understood how difficult it was for Michael to once again be put in a position where he would have to take people’s lives for the supposed “greater good.” In fact, it wasn’t until he felt he had received confirmation that these people were not who they seemed, and that they may in fact put his friends in danger, that he was willing to pull the proverbial trigger.
His final communication with Ben was equally intense. How cold was it for Ben to remind Michael that nobody asked him to kill Ana Lucia and Libby and that it was his own decision? It’s also interesting that Ben doesn’t want Michael to kill people that are supposedly innocent. Is it because Ben doesn’t want to take the lives of people who are ignorant of their actions, or do these supposed innocent people serve a great purpose for the leader of The Others?
Of course, one cannot ignore the irony of Sayid being so appalled with Michael’s alliance-out-of-necessity with Ben, when in fact Sayid ultimately provides that very role (almost to a tee, based on what we’ve seen). This is another reason why I really want to see a Rousseau flashback: Knowing the future gives you a really deeper appreciation for past events and behavior.
April 24th cannot come soon enough.
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