What exactly am I to say after something like that? The final episode of the penultimate season of Lost paid off in spades, capping off a truly exhilarating journey through space and time and leaving us wanting oh so much more. I suspect some of you might have been confused (understandable) or even angry at the EXTREMELY open-ended final beat, as poor Juliet detonated Jughead’s plutonium core, leading to a white-out for the ages. For me, it was so very reminiscent of the season 1 finale, wherein we were left with the lingering shot of a busted ladder down the tunnel of the hatch as Jack and Locke had just busted it open. We are being set up for something truly special.
And it’s just eight short months away…
(I’m going to recap this the best I can. As always, i encourage you to do some independent research. You have some time, after all. For instance, does anyone know Latin? Has anyone read the book of Revelations lately? In any event…let’s press on).
A Loaded Conversation if ever there was one
Quite an opening scene we got, huh? It would appear that “what lies in the shadow of the statue” is uber-Other Jacob himself. After putting in some hard work on a complex tapestry, he strolled out to the beach and treated himself to some fish while taking in the scenery. It was all so peaceful…the sun….the waves…The Black Rock….WHAT?
And that wasn’t it. Some other dude comes striding out of the jungle and engages the previously i nvisible deity in some interesting dialogue. Some samples:
Jacob: I take it you’re here ’cause of the ship?
Other Guy: I am. How did they find the Island?
Jacob: We’ll have to ask them when they get here.
Other Guy: I don’t have to ask. You brought them here…Still trying to prove me wrong aren’t you?
Jacob: You are wrong.
Other Guy: Am I? They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. Always ends the same.
Jacob: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, just progress.
Other Guy: Dou have any idea how badly I want to kill you?
Jacob: Yes.
Devil: One of these days, sooner or later, I’m going to find a loophole, my friend.
God: Well, when you do, I’ll be right here.
See what I did there? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got a distinct good vs. evil, god vs. fallen angel vibe from these two. It’s too early yet to tell if this just a thematic motif or a literal rumination on the Island as Heaven, or Eden, or something in between.
So we finally got a definitive glimpse of Jacob. It would not be our last.
Everywhere you go, I’ll be watching you
The tagline for this brilliant season was “Destiny Calls”. Never before was that theme more in play than it was tonight. Jacob’s presence has been felt at several key moments in the castaway’s lives, both pre-island and post-island. First, he got little Kate off the hook for a convenience store heist, then sent his condolences to little Sawyer at his parent’s funeral (then he started writing the note. What an awesome moment.) Then he distracted Sayid for directions just long enough to get innocent Nadia run over by a passing SUV. Then, he had a bedside chat with Ajira 316 renegade Ilana (more on her and her cohorts to come). He says he needs her help and she is more than happy to oblige. Does anyone know what language they were speaking? I thought it was Portuguese, but I’m no linguist.
Jacob wasn’t nearly done. He offered Locke words of comfort IMMEDIATELY after his son of a bitch dad pushed him out a window. He offered a pleasant blessing to Sun and Jin on their wedding day (in perfect Korean, no less!). He helped Jack with his wayward Apollo Bar, (official candy of the DHARMA Initiative) after his character-defining first surgery not heard of since the pilot episode. It also turns out Jacob was the one who ushered Hurley back to the Island, guitar case in tow.
It’s difficult to determine what we are to make of Jacob’s presence in their lives. Only in Hurley’s case did he really engage them in serious dialogue regarding the Island. His mere presence at many different places across many different times, (notice the lack of aging, as with Richard, who himself admitted “I’m this way, because of Jacob.” loaded.) further amplifies his God-like qualities I spoke of earlier. Also, it’s important to note that in each encounter, Jacob physically touched each castaway.
Ground Zero
The slam-bang action arc of last night’s finale was pretty damn impressive. Sawyer, Kate and Juliet’s tenure on the submarine was cut short, as they decided to do their best to stop Jack. Jack was busy in the bowels of the Island taking Jughead’s plutonium core out. Richard and Eloise traveled as far as they could before Richard vowed to keep their leader safe and it was just up to Jack and Sayid. Sayid did not make out so well, taking a slug to the gut before Hurley came to the rescue with Jin and Miles in the Dharma van.
At that point, the van crew met up with the three erstwhile submarine dwellers and all hell broke loose. Jack and Sawyer had a nice heart to heart, touching on all the Lost essentials. Fate vs. Free Will, Destiny, setting things right. All that good stuff. Then, there were no more words. They just resorted to beating the ever-loving hell out of each other. This was the kind of fight that has been bulding ever since these two first butted heads the day of the crash. And for a minute there it looked as though Sawyer was actually going to bludgeon the good doctor to death. That was before Juliet intervened. She’d had a change of heart since she had borne witness to Sawyer and Kate’s cutesy banter. Sawyer insisted he loved her, but Juliet seemed convinced that they were never meant to be.
Long story short, everybody eventually got on board with Jack’s plan. Jack had to infiltrate the Swan station, guarded by a completely irate Radzinsky, who turned into a pretty nice villain down the stretch here, I really dug his whole science gone mad angle, what with vowing to change the world. When Jack dropped in the plutonium there was nothing to do but wait for the inevitable…nothing. Nothing happened. The highly volatile plutonium core fell harmlessly to the ground. But they were not yet out of the woods. The exotic matter beneath the Swan had been ruptured and all the metal within a stone’s throw began flying to the core. This dispatched of most of Radzinsky’s villains, most notably Phil, who certainly got his just desserts for smacking around Sawyer’s woman.
One of the more unfortunate casualties was Juliet, who, after a tearful goodbye with Sawyer, was dragged to the Island’s bowels, presumably to her death. Little did we know it was her who would throw the whole Lost universe into chaos.
Overall, there were some great moments between so many combinations of people. Jack and Sawyer, Jack and Kate, Sawyer and Juliet, Hurley and everyone. We got a nifty Juliet flashback dealing with her parents’ divorce and this one was conspicuously without the presence of Jacob, leading me to believe Juliet is the one castaway who will not be returning next season. But what a way to go out, huh?
Forces Unknown
It’s been abundantly clear that some kind of war is looming. Widmore spoke of it. The shadow of the statue people have hinted at it, and it would appear the war is on an even bigger scale than we could have ever predicted. The aforementioned Ilana and her crew of 316 survivors made their way to the main island with Frank. They were on a journey to find Jacob, and logically went to his cabin. Ilana noticed the otherworldly circle of ash around the shack was broken. Inside, the Cabin was completely abandoned and Ilanainferred that Jacob had not been there for quite some time and that someone else has been using it. That puts into doubt everything we’ve seen in that Cabin earlier, including Christian’s advice to turn the wheel and move the island.
Ilana also recieved a sewn map to Jacob’s new digs, inside the statue. Speaking of that epic sculpture, I earlier speculated it might be the Egyptian god Anubis. Given the different glimpses we got of it tonight, it now appears to be the goddess Taweret (google it and you’ll se what I mean). Wikipedia describes Taweret: Her name means (one) who is great. When paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Since Apep was viewed as residing below the horizon, and only present at night, evil during the day then was envisaged as being a result of Taweret’s maleficence, continuing the ultimate good vs. evil dynamic the show seems to be unearthing. Make of that what you will. It also may be the god Sobek, often depicted as a man with the head of a crocodile.
When the 316 crew finally reached the Statue. Ilana sought out “Ricardos” and asked him the loaded statue query. He responded with an as-yet untranslated Latin phrase. I have only rudimentary Latin skills but it sounded as though Richard said: Ille qui nos omnes servabit, which roughly translates to. “He who will protect us/save us all”
Earlier she spoke of their precious cargo as something that Richard needed to see “So he can see what he is up against”. It was none other than the very-dead body of John Locke. This is especially odd considering we just saw him waltz into the humongous foot with Ben.
The Odd Couple
It’s no secret that Ben and Locke present some of the most interesting scenes on Lost. This was no different tonight as right from the outset, Locke told Ben that he would actually be the one taking Jacob’s life. Ben did take some convincing, and we were treated to a series of scenes with Ben unburdening his soul, admitting he never has seen Jacob, and always dutifully followed his orders. Locke finally sealed the pact with a heartfelt chat within spitting distance of the exploded Swan’s hatch door. Ben had served and given so much, even seeing his surrogate daughter killed, and for all his trouble, he was banished.
When the time came to do the deed, Ben repeated many of these sentiments to Jacob himself. This was one of Michael Emerson’s finest moments on the show, which is saying a lot. It culminated with his demand to know why Locke was so special and why Ben was never allowed such a personal congress with him. Jacob casually tossed Ben away, which sent him over the edge, stabbing him several times before Jacob uttered his final ominous words: They’re coming. They’re coming.
I would be remiss of course if I did not mention the obvious callback to the episode’s first scene. Where Jacob gazes at this phantom version of Locke and says “Well, you found your loophole.” His mysterious beachmate has taken on the form of Locke in an effort to overthrow him, or so it would seem.
Who is traipsing around the Island in the guise of Locke? It’s looking more and more like it’s the same thing that happened with Jack’s father. I’ve long thought that Christian Shepard was possessed by the Smoke Monster. If pressed I would put my rough overall theory into these very vague words:
Jacob and the Smoke Monster have been on the Island for a very long time. They are forever at odds, with one possibly maintaining control over the other at any given point. Whenever a group of outsiders makes their way to the Island, Jacob and the Smoke Monster engage them in a battle of wits/morality/true intentions, always with chaotic results. The game-changer here is the presence of our castaways. My guess is that Juliet’s heroics have thrown all the main pieces back to the same time and space on the Island. If you paid attention at the tail end of tonight’s episode, you saw a flash of Jack’s eye opening after he 815 crash, the first shot in the history of Lost. I would surmise that all pieces for the upcoming war have been moved into their proper place, possibly at the beginning of the timeline we’ve seen play out over the last five seasons. But next season, all bets are off. Sides will be chose, lives will be lost, souls found, and I for one can’t wait to be a part of it.
Greatest Hits
Some extra things I just couldn’t fit in:
Sun found Charlie’s ring. A very little thing, but I loved it. I thought they had just forgotten about the fact that Claire left it in the crib waaay back in the season 3 finale. Shame on me for thinking that.
My favorite scene of the night was absolutely the emergence of Rose and Bernard. And Vincent, too. Their take on what’s been happening perfectly summed up everything I love about this show. The would-be heroes were going on and on about saving the island and changing the past and this and that. And all Rose could say was “It’s always something with you people.” They’ve had enough. They’ve made a nice secluded home for themselves. There’s always a lot happening on the show, a lot of crazy mythology to decipher. But in the end, this show is about the characters. It’s about their relationships and how decisions that they make affect one another. No matter what craziness will ensue over the remainder of the series, it will always be about the people we’ve come to love. To quote Bernard, who put it so well upon hearing the Island may explode at any minute. “So we die. We just care about being together. That’s all that matters in the end.” Well said, Bernard. Well said.
Well, I’m officially spent. What a finish. What a season. What a bunch of question we still have! We got some closure this season, but as always, one answer means unearthing three or four more questions to worry about. And I would not have it any other way. I’ll be back next week with my Season 5 wrap-up, where you’ll get my picks for best episode, best moment, best performances, etc.
Until then, please don’t be afraid to rattle my cage via comments or through my email up top, with your theories questions and thoughts about this superb season of television.
Be seeing you,
Namaste.
