Incident Tidbits And Second Viewing Thoughts

(This is essentially Part III of my Incident review. Click here for Part I and Part II)

I was going to go over some scenes and happenings in light of The Incident, but my outline is kinda long, so maybe I'll make it an off season series of posts instead. Em and I just watched the finale a second time and, upon a second viewing, I think it actually might be the best finale of the show. I do need to go back and watch "Exodus" again, but I think this may have even topped that. A couple things that struck me:

1) All the acting in this episode was spectacular. I mentioned Michael Emerson and Elizabeth Mitchell before, but Terry O'Quinn also deserves a mention for actually playing someone other than the character he's played for five years. It was a masterful, subtle performance and I wonder if he's going to play the Rival for the entire next season? Will Terry O'Quinn now become the main villain of the show? That would be pretty cool.

Even Jack, Kate and Sawyer deserve some props. I still disliked the scene between Jack and Sawyer, but Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway did their very best with what they were given. Evangeline Lilly too (who looked better in this episode than she has in a long time, I think). And that last scene between Sawyer and Juliet was even more heart wrenching on a second watch. If Juliet is truly dead, she certainly gave it her all at the end.

2) This is something I totally missed the other night - must have be distracted for a second or two: Seeing what was on the parchment in Jacob's cabin (click for biggie version, thanks to Dark UFO):



Yeah, looks like the statue is definitely Taweret. This, I think, might give a bit more credence to the idea that Jacob and his Rival are really Ra and Apep. And if that's the case, perhaps Smokey is really Taweret herself, since she's supposed to be the consort of Apep. That could explain why Smokey seemed to be helping him, especially in the scene with Ben and Alex.

3) Ilana, after returning from Jacob's cabin, said "He's not there. Someone else has been using it." I'm curious as to why she used the word "using" - it certainly implies that the Rival was impersonating Jacob there, rather than having been imprisoned. And that further implies that perhaps the ring of ash was protective rather than used for containment - in other words, the whole reason the Rival was able to co-opt the cabin was because the ring of ash was broken.

4) Jacob and touching. Linda and others have pointed out how Jacob seems to touch everyone of the Losties he visited. It can be debated as to whether he actually touches Jack and Sawyer when he hands them the pen and candy bar respectively, but Em was convinced some sort of contact was there. But I have a slightly alternate theory: What if it wasn't the touch that was important, what if it was the gift? What did he give everyone?

1) Kate - The lunchbox
2) Sawyer - The pen
3) Sun and Jin - His blessing
4) Sayid - His life
5) Jack - The candy bar
6) Hurley - Charlie's guitar

And you can also argue, he gave Locke his forgiveness for being the ultimate pawn in his demise (or perhaps his life - maybe Locke wouldn't have survived the fall without Jacob being there). Just something else to think about.

5) The Rival and the statue. I was a bit surprised the Rival needed Richard to tell him where Jacob was living. He had no idea all this time? Kinda odd.

6) Pierre Chang's arm. On a second look, it seems Pierre only got his hand pinched, not his entire arm. I need to go back and watch the Swan Orientation film again.

7) Frank as a candidate. This was mentioned somewhere else - I forget where - but is it possible that Frank might be a candidate for Jacob's next body? Perhaps Jacob will be reborn, much like Ra is every day, but he needs a new vessel who has to be a "good person." Maybe the reason Jacob (assuming it was actually Jacob that was giving Richard the lists over the years) was collecting good people, is because he knew this would happen and would need a new, uncorrupted vessel for his body. Perhaps that was why he had Ben put Walt in Room 23.

The more I think about this, the more I like it. And I love the idea that Frank could be the next Jacob. ^_^

Tidbits

* I meant to mention this in Part I of my review but I forgot. I watched the clip show before the finale that had a good deal of Darlton musings and they mentioned that the reason Jack, Hurley, Sayid and Kate were sent back in time was because they failed to replicate the conditions of Flight 815 adequately. In other words, it was a bit of an accident that they were sent back in time.

This also brings in question Kate's decision to leave Aaron behind. What if she had brought him along, or if Locke had asked Walt to come? Would that have been sufficient to prevent them from time shifting? And how does this fit in with the Rival's plan? I might muse on this in more detail later on.

* Anyone else notice the sub guys had their own DHARMA symbol? Cool.

* The book Jacob was reading when Locke fell was Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor. It has a white dove pierced by a black arrow on the cover. Nice.

* Sun and Jin had a very nice setting for their wedding.

* I just realized that the scene where we get to see Jack counting to five was the original scene he recounted to Kate in the Pilot. Seems he conveniently left out the fact his dad was the one who helped him hold it together, much the same way he did to Kate. Very cool.

* What the heck was Ilana doing in Russia?

* Ben lied to Locke when he said he was a Pieces - he's actually a Sagittarius.

* Quotes- lots of good stuff this episode. Could quote Ben's entire speech to Jacob.

"Do you know how much I want to kill you right now?"

"If Jack wants to blow up the Island... good for Jack."

"I'm this way because of Jacob."

"I don't know... but his Korean is excellent." - I can't tell you how much I loved this line.

"Let's get it started!" - When Radzinsky said this, I clapped my hands.

"I know John Locke. And if I were you, I wouldn't give up on him." - D'oh, Jack!

"I'm not going to kill Jacob, Ben. You are."

"Because we're retired."

We're together, that's all that matters in the end." - <3 Rose and Bernard

"So I lied. That's what I do."

"Someone else has been using it."

"I'm sorry this happened to you." - Notice Jacob didn't say to Locke "I'm sorry this had to happen to you" - seems to implicate his Rival.

"Looks like you found your loophoole."

Summary:

After a second viewing and musing on it for a few days, I think this may be the best season finale, simply because of how it changes the way we have to view both Locke and Ben (something I'll talk further about in future posts). The introduction of Jacob and his Rival is a game changer on par with anything we've seen on the show, and certainly presses if not exceeds Jack's initial flash forward for the top spot. I think when the show finally runs its course, if the show ends well, this episode may become as iconic as anything seen on the show. It's a 5.0, easily.

So what's up here for the hiatus. Certainly a revision of my Top Ten episodes list and some musing on how some of the central mysteries of the show have changed. Plus I'd like to create a checklist of all things we need answers to in the final season and see if the writers deliver. I'll try and make a substantial post at least once a week - hopefully I won't be quite as busy this year as I was the last. :)