Lost Episode Review 6.17 & 6.18: "The End"

"This is the place you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That's why you're all here...."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

I was going to simply use "See you in another life, brutha" as my quote, but it just seemed too obvious.

Leading up to the finale, there was a lot of online discussion about where Lost's ending would fall among the ranks of the great and the not-so-great. On the great side, you have M*A*S*H, Newhart and Cheers; on the not-so-great (or at very least, controversial) you have Seinfeld, The Sopranos, St. Elsewhere and BSG. My gut feeling is that if you're one of the people who liked "Across The Sea" you're going to put "The End" in with the greats. If you didn't, it's going to fall in the latter group, possibly pretty far down.

As for myself, I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the narrative overall, but I'm greatly disappointed that 1) everything in the Alt was kinda made irrelevant by the fact it was really just an existential waiting room and 2) all the unresolved questions that were ignored in favor of the Jacob/MiB conflict this season made much of the previous seasons feel irrelevant as well.

On some of the message boards, it's been suggested Lost would have been better if it ended with Season 5 - Juliet detonates the bomb and fade to black (or white, I suppose). The end. Dark? Sure, but dark is always cool. The same thing could be said for BSG, which could have ended in even a darker manner halfway through the final season (in fact, it could have gone down in history as the darkest, bleakest ending ever seen). But BSG instead chose to go out happy, giving most of the characters a fan-friendly send-off that treated them with reverence. Lost chose this route as well. There was also a touch of "The Sopranos" here as well, especially in the fact that Darlton chose to go out on their own terms.

Darlton were kinda sensitive in their defense of "Across The Sea," especially in regards to the words "cop out." But there's really no way to spin this ending without mentioning those words. Even if you liked the feel-good reunion at the end and didn't care about all the unresolved questions, in order to make it all work and us in suspense all season they had to give us a big head-fake as to the Alt's true nature. And now, in retrospect, a lot of what we saw in the Alt this season doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. And for a show that prides itself on its intelligence and the intelligence of its viewers, this is extremely disappointing to me.

I'm not going to be totally negative here, if you want that you can go here instead. Let's go through some of the individual plot elements from "The End" and take a look at what I liked and didn't like.

1) The Alt is an existential waiting room where the Losties gather until they're all dead and ready to "move on."

I did like this. Sorta.

Is it creative? Yes. Is it schmaltzy? Yes. Were all the awakenings emotionally manipulative? Heck yeah. But I really enjoyed all of the Alt scenes regardless. The ending in the church felt a little too much like a self-congratulatory cast party, but it still tugged the heartstrings. And it didn't cheapen what happened on the Island because all these people really did die, just some much later than others. Kate, Sawyer and everyone on the Ajira plane really did escape from the Island.

The problem with it is that because it was just a "waiting room," nothing in it was real. Everything we saw in the Alt this past season was fake. And in retrospect, even though all the awakenings were cool, it makes us question why they all had to wake up in the first place.

Also, because they didn't want to give the ending away, they had to mislead us all season into thinking the Alt was actually an alternate timeline. Yes, Jack's cut on his neck and "appendix scar" (yay, more blatant Christian symbolism) were nice bits of misdirection, but there was so much about the Alt that now, in retrospect, just doesn't make a lot of sense. Showing us the sunken Island in "LA X" was a total head-fake, put there simply to make us think it was an alternate timeline and that kinda ticks me off. It does make me feel somewhat good that my pocket universe theory was somewhat closer to the actual truth.

Also because the Alt is a total fake, a lot of the stuff we saw there this season just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. As I mentioned above, why did Desmond have to wake everyone up? How did he get woken up in the first place? Did he did actually die and come back when Charles Widmore tried to turn him into Dr. Manhattan? Certainly seems like it. But the weirdest thing was Aaron being "born" into the Alt. He certainly must have lived a full life in the real world with Claire and Kate. Must suck to have to then spend your entire afterlife as an infant because that's how these people remembered you. :P

2) The Island really is a cork to keep Hell in its place.

It's not just a cork, it actually has a literal cork too. And when you pull it out, it negates all rules on the Island or something. Jack and Smokey become mortal, everyone dies. Again I imagine anyone who liked "Across The Sea" liked this. I thought it was kinda cheesy.

3) You gain no awareness or knowledge whatsoever by becoming the new Jacob.

I think this is the plot element that annoyed me the most. Jack becomes the new Jacob and doesn't have a clue. WTF? Granted, this was only done because it was the only way to set up the ending, but this was emblematic of the episode itself. The awakenings, Jack being clueless, Jack and Smokey becoming mortal, Aaron being an infant in the Alt... all these things were done to get us to the reunion and the final shot of Jack's eye closing. Darlton knew the final shot was to be Jack's eye closing in the bamboo field and had to come up with some pretty silly plot devices to get him there.

Jack's been stabbed in the side and has to cross the Island and climb down a rope? No problem. Jack gets blown out of the Source like Smokey and survives? No problem. After all that he's still able to stagger through the jungle to the bamboo forest? No problem. After all that he wants to stagger through the forest to the bamboo jungle? Yeeesh. It was almost like you could see him thinking "I've... got... to... get... perfect... final... shot... before... I... die" while he was walking. Completely contrived and really, really weak.

4) What happened on the Island, happened. Those who escaped, escaped.

I liked the fact that some people did manage to escape the Island, that Kate managed to bring Claire back and that all the Island stuff wasn't a dream. There's also a bit of fanservice in that Kate and Sawyer get to be together in real life while Kate and Jack (and Sawyer and Juliet) get to be together in the afterlife. Guess Kate got the best of both worlds, eh?

I also cheered when I saw Frank was still alive. Makes me feel better knowing he didn't die a pointless death.

5) Ben and Daniel stay behind to be with the people they love.

I kinda like this even if it doesn't make much sense. Daniel wouldn't go with them since Charlotte was here. Ben would stay for Alex (and maybe Danielle), not to mention, he always felt he was a bit of an outsider of the group - remember his pained speech to Ilana where he told her he was going to Locke because he had nowhere else to go? The scene outside the church reminded me of that. In fact, I think that would be the one scene from the episode that would make my Top 108 moments list - Locke forgiving Ben.

But why would you want to stay in a waiting room when the real afterlife awaits? Wouldn't the real afterlife be so much better? Maybe there's a really juicy issue of People Magazine they haven't read there or something.

6) Rose, Bernard and Vincent did time travel to 2007 and lived out their lives on the Island.

Yay. Just yay. :)

Oh, and I totally called it, by the way. In general I was pleased with several of my predictions: The Alt being Lost's happy ending, Desmond entering the source, Juliet being Jack's ex-wife, Hurley being Jack's backup, Smokey using The Elizabeth as his escape plan. Just didn't see the waiting room coming. *sigh*

7) Hurley becomes the new Jacob and Ben becomes his #2.

I liked this as well. And props to Michael Emerson here too. Did you notice the way his eyes dropped when Jack chose Hurley as his successor? He so wanted the job himself, even though he knew he didn't deserve it. But somehow the thought of those two living on the Island for an eternity together after everyone else has left is kinda neat.

8) Eloise really was self-serving.

I kinda predicted this. Smokey had nothing to do with the Alt, but it does fit that all of Eloise's motivation was selfishness, driven by the desire to be together with Daniel.

9) The writers really didn't care about anything other than the characters.

And this sucked. Yeah, they've been warning us all season, but it doesn't make it suck any less. And don't get me wrong, the characters were important, but Darlton knew the fanbase cared about the mythology as well and to just ignore it entirely in favor of heart-tugging schmaltz is a total cop out. You can almost hear Journey playing in the background.

Darlton will argue that they had no obligation to answer every question on the show, but the sheer magnitude of everything they've ignored diminishes every season of Lost outside of this one and the first. Why do all the Egyptian stuff in the first place? Why spend so much time on childbirth on the Island? Why tease us with giant statues of fertility goddesses if they're just there for show? I'm not angry, I'm just sad and incredibly disappointed they chose the easy way out.

10) I have perfected the chicken wing.

If there is one excellent thing that came out of last night, it's that I've perfected my chicken wing recipe. The breading was excellent, the sauces were incredible and they were cooked to perfection. I actually had to put the remaining Honey BBQ sauce into the fridge otherwise I would have eaten the entire bowl with a spoon. I wish I was eating them right now...

Summary (and future blogging plans)

I'm going to give this episode a 2.5/5. The character stuff was a 5, but it gets a 0 for the mythology and overall I feel a little disappointed, about the same as I did after the BSG finale, but I do think on the whole I liked that finale a bit more because (with one major exception) I thought it was a bit more honest about it's intentions than Lost was.

Next week, I'll start my Top 108 Lost Moments list. I'll probably post them in batches of 10 or so along with a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut. After that, I think I'm probably going to start a new blog, one that will touch on a variety of subjects I'm interested in, including science, the Mets, parenting and, of course, pop culture. There will be an announcement once that begins.

As for Lost, it will still remain one of my favorite all-time shows. I'm just a bit saddened that it's legacy to television (which will still remain great, to be sure) is likely going to be diminished by the ending.

What did everyone think? :)

Lost Episode Review 6.16: "What They Died For"

"Mr. Locke, I think you're mistaking coincidence for fate..."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

Yeah, it wasn't the best quote of the episode, but I couldn't resist.

Now this was the heady Lost buzz I was looking for last week. I really can't believe they didn't air this episode right after "The Candidate" and give us "Across The Sea" earlier in the season. AtS was easily the most polarizing episode I ever had in my Lost poll. The results:

Best episode ever: 10%
In my Top 10: 10%
Above average: 32%
Average: 13%
Mediocre: 20%
Awful: 10%
Toy airplane awful: 3%

I've never had an episode poll where every single category got at least one vote. I expect this episode to be much more clustered near the top. Overall a great set-up for the finale - it didn't redeem AtS much, but it at least returned to the Island and Alt narratives that were chugging along so well until last week. The one reference to last week I did like is the fact Jacob wanted to give the candidates "what he never had" - a choice, even though there was a risk none of them would take the job (although, much like his Mother, Jacob really didn't explain all the negatives that come with the position).

It's now down to Jack, Hurley, Sawyer and Kate (and maybe Richard and Miles) vs. Locke and Ben (and maybe Claire). I like those teams. My predictions were completely off this week. Not only did the reveal of Alt Jack's wife get put off until the finale, but I guess I was totally wrong about Ben redeeming himself (maybe). Ben's betrayal of Widmore and Tina Fey was the most shocking scene of the season to me - easily makes my Top 108 moments list, possibly fairly high up on it too.

Alt Desmond was great too. Part of what's so enjoyable about his "getting the band back together" routine is how much fun he seems to be having doing it and I loved how Hurley is now fully on board as well. Now it seems that entire storyline is on a collision course with David's concert where Jack's wife is waiting for us... and where Kate is now heading as well... in a little black dress. Methinks Jack's head is about to explode.

The only thing I was a little disappointed with was how easily Jack took over Jacob's job. It was all kind of anti-climactic - happened pretty much exactly as we all expected it to happen. The candidates have a choice? Check. Jack volunteers? Check. Jacob makes Jack take a drink and Jack gives him some good "Party of Five" Jackface? Check aaaaaand check! But that's really a nitpick. This was a great prelude to the finale and I can't wait until Sunday!

The Final Five Questions... Ever!:

1) How can Desmond destroy the Island?

Desmond is really the Failsafe Key to both universes. Alt Desmond very clearly understands what he's trying to do and seems to be executing it with ruthless efficiency. Present day Desmond also knows what his significance is and (presumably) headed to where he needed to be after escaping from the well. Speaking of which, who let him out? Sayid said he left him at the bottom the well, but there was clearly a rope there. My wild guess: Rose and Bernard. After all, they're not Adam and Eve, right? And I have to think they time traveled with the rest of them since if they didn't, Vincent would be dead in 2007. And we know Vincent will be in the finale in some way. :)

But I think Desmond knows how to kill Smokey using the EM energy on the Island and his counterpart in the Alt. I'm guessing it's going to take a combination of the two to work. But how could Desmond destroy the Island? That's certainly not his intention here, although it's why Widmore brought him along. After this episode, I'm revising my previous prediction from this week - I now think that if Desmond enters The Source, the Island will be destroyed. The Source seems to act by separating the soul from the physical body, but if Desmond is resistant to this I think throwing him in the Source would act as a wrench in the gears - The Source would be unable to destroy him and it would start a chain reaction that would destroy the Island.

If I were Jack I'd want to keep Desmond as far away from the Source as possible.

2) What will happen once Alt Jack and Locke remember?

Whatever happens in the Alt, whatever role the Alt has to play in the finale starts and ends with Jack and Locke. Both of them need to "let go" of their baggage in order to remember the other universe. Desmond and Kate are converging on Jack at David's concert and I imagine Hurley and Sayid are heading to see Locke. So what happens when all of their memories come flooding back? Will Locke remember dying? Will Jack remember becoming the new Jacob? And what implications will this have on the present day universe?

Part of me feels like this might be leading up to a mind-switch thing where, if both of Jack and Locke's counterparts remember the present day universe, they'll be able to mind-switch with their on-Island counterparts. And maybe if that happens, Smokey will be trapped in a mortal body and can be killed (or can choose to live a "normal" life off the Island). Alt Locke becomes Smokey and gets to have the Island adventure he always wanted, playing backgammon (or Senet) with Jack for all eternity. As amusing as that ending would be, I think Smokey's too crazy now to allow to live. They're going to have to kill him.

But there's a third key here as well: Alt Jack's wife. I'm sticking by my original prediction that Alt Jack's wife is actually Juliet, who's important because her deceased present day counterpart was the one who actually created the Alt. Maybe Juliet is the most important one out of the three, especially if she can affect the entire Alt universe in some way? Now watch - Alt Jack's wife will turn out to be Nikki or, worse, Mother. Ewwww...

3) So can Jack make up his own rules now?

This is really a bunch of questions all strung together. Jack is officially the new Jacob, and judging from his quality zen-like Jackface after he drained Jacob's cup I imagine he knows everything that's going on now. So the question is, since the Island has a new Jacob can he make up rules that Smokey has to abide by, especially rules like "No killing former candidates."

Since Hurley and Sawyer are no longer candidates can Smokey kill them or are they still backup candidates in case Smokey succeeds in killing Jack? After all, Jack would certainly be able to pass on his mantle to one of them in the same way, provided they volunteered. Heck, I bet Kate would even take the job if both of them refused.

But if Jack does make up new rules, I imagine he's going to have to convey them to Smokey and whenever and wherever he does that, Smokey's going to have Ben waiting in the weeds to kill him. Unless...

4) Is Ben really on Smokey's team?

Ben's betrayal of Widmore was by far the most shocking (and enjoyable) scene of the episode. Understandable too, in that Ben wanted revenge on Widmore for Alex's death - his motivations in that case were perfectly clear. But Ben doesn't exactly like Smokey either - not only did Smokey manipulate him, but he's inhabiting the body of the one man Ben hates most in the world as well. Plus, if Smokey's backup plan is to destroy the Island, that probably doesn't sit well with Ben, considering the Island is supposed to be his prize for helping Smokey escape.

All this season I've thought Ben was going to redeem himself for killing Jacob, which made his betrayal all the more shocking last night. Especially in light of his Alt self where we see he really is capable of becoming a good, kind human being who is loved and appreciated by others. So while part of me understands it's completely in Ben's nature to want to take his revenge on Widmore and work with Smokey to get "his Island" back, I'm thinking there's going to be a double team here.

Yes, Ben is completely self-serving, but sticking it to Smokey would be something he'd love to do anyway and he does have a backpack full of C4. I think Ben is going to double-cross Smokey first chance he gets and possibly get a modicum of redemption with his Island self as well.

5) Would the candidates all have been flawed without Jacob's interference?

Of all the things this episode, this interested me the most. Jacob told them he chose all of them because they were "flawed like him" and they weren't happy in their previous lives. But in the Alt universe this season we've seen what the candidates became without an Island, without Jacob's influence. So just how much of their flaws was due to Jacob himself? Certainly Kate still has her problems, Sayid is still a torturer, Sawyer still has his past to deal with, but with the exception of Kate I'd say they're all a lot happier in the Alt. Did Jacob take away their only chance at happiness for the greater good? Seems like it to me.

Now he may not have done this intentionally. He may not have known how things were going to turn out in the future. But it's also neat to see that, when left to their own devices (and their own choices), pretty much all the Losties chose good over evil. In a way, it's Smokey's worst nightmare. If Jacob and Smokey were to go through each of the Losties in the Alt on a case-by-case basis Smokey would have a pile of white stones in front of him. And in no one is this more evident than in Ben, who (right now) is the polar opposite of his Alt self.

So was Jacob making lists to protect the non-candidates? I think so. The Others were taking away "good people," i.e. people without flaws (like Mihkail once pointedly told Sayid, Kate and Locke they weren't). Jacob must have had them take the good people away to protect them from the Island and from the other candidates. I wonder how much of this Ben and Richard knew.

Bonus: How will it all end?

The only question left to ask, right? I'm guessing Jack is going to figure out a way to destroy Locke - maybe using Desmond to transport him to the Alt, making him mortal or something - but both timelines remain intact. That way, all the characters who've died in the present day universe get their happy ending, but I'm guessing the final scene will come down to Kate choosing to stay with Jack on the Island over leaving with Sawyer. And Jack will give her Richard's gift of eternal life so they can be together forever.

Yes, I'm predicting the show is going to end by answering the most important mystery of all: Jate or Skate? (I keed, I keed). ;)

Tidbits:

- I think it's fairly clear that since Sun was a mother, it was Jin who was the actual candidate of the two.

- Raise your hand if you thought Jacob and Jack were going to Locke lips after their Communion? Yeah, Em and I both...

- Is Richard dead? Can he be killed by Smokey? Presumably he was attacked before Jacob transferred power. My gut says he's still alive.

- I liked that The Source was near the bamboo forest where Jack, Kate and Charlie first encountered the Monster.

- A little disappointing not much more was done with Jacob's ashes, but I suppose using them against Locke would have been too easy.

- Wasn't Zoe the most useless character Lost has ever introduced? Her death was quite satisfying.

- "Even if we have to kidnap you." I loved the dinner scene with Danielle and Dr. Linus. I actually think they'd make a nice couple...

- "Nice not knowing you." Great Ana-Lucia cameo too.

- Text messages for the finale? Jebus, they're milking this for all it's worth. And what was the deal with the squeaky-voiced woman who did the preview for the finale? Sounded like the psychic from "Poltergeist," although Zelda Rubenstein (great name) died earlier this year. Maybe she's a ghost on the Island. :)

Summary:

As far as penultimate episodes go, this one was great. Jack taking over, Locke killing Zoe, Ben betraying Widmore and lots and lots of Alt Desmond. What more could anyone want? 4/5. See you Sunday! :)

Lost Episode Review 6.15: "Across The Sea"

"So do you want to play or don't you, Jacob..."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

I think my Kool-Aid glass has finally been drained. Honestly if the Mets hadn't had a thrilling come-from-behind win last night, I would have gone to bed totally depressed. I thought this episode was incredibly weak and the explanations given incredibly... lame? Silly? Vague? Pick your adjective. Granted this show has set the bar quite high for a very long time now and this episode had some very high expectations from me coming in, which is part of the reason I'm disappointed, but it just seemed like incredibly weak writing for one of the last three episodes of the show. Let's look at a few of the major things we learned:

Jacob and ....... are actually brothers. OK.
Their real mom was killed by Allison Janney who raised them. Eh.
The Island protects a mystical golden light. Lame.
You become the new Jacob by taking Communion from the previous one. Doubly lame.
Adam and Eve are really Smokey's original body and Allison Janney. Triple-ly lame.

And I think the thing that bothers me the most is that this episode makes you feel sorry for Smokey which, IMHO, makes him a weaker villain and makes Jacob seem like a naive tool. Don't you kinda want Smokey to get off the Island now? And Allison Janney could probably have prevented all of this from happening if she just gave them some straight answers on who they were and what they needed to do instead of jerking them around. I mean, she kills their real mother and forbids them from leaving the Island for a greater purpose that she never fully explains, nor does she explain the consequences if they refuse. I'd say screw you, I'm leaving too! Someone's gotta make some "I'm with Smokey" bumper stickers...

And lastly, the last two episodes were arguably two of the weakest of the season, but I didn't really have much of a problem with them because they seemed to be getting the pieces into place for the finale. This episode, however, was supposed to be a major piece of the mystery of the show and for it to be even weaker than the previous two (IMHO) is extremely saddening to me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still greatly looking forward to the final two episodes. It's just that my expectations have been significantly lowered now. And that's kinda sad. Am I being too harsh? Maybe. And maybe after the finale I'll be able to look back at this episode in a different light. But I was bummed when I went to bed last night and that has never happened to me before on a Lost night.

Before we delve into the questions, let's summarize the stuff we did learn this episode:

Bullet Points:

- Jacob and Smokey are human-born fraternal twins born on the Island.

- Their birth mother was killed by their adoptive Mother.

- Their adoptive Mother was the guardian of the Island who raised them away from what she considered to be man's "corrupting influence" so one or both of them could take over her mantle.

- Their adoptive Mother has some sort of powers since 1) she was able to grant eternal life to the two human children she found and 2) she seemed to slaughter all the men on the Island quite easily for an elderly woman, not to mention filling in the Donkey Wheel well with dirt. She does mention that she came to the Island "by accident."

- The Source of the Island is what the Mother is guarding, a cave filled with golden light described as "life, death, rebirth." She passed her mantle on to Jacob by having him drink a very symbolic cup of wine. *rolls eyes*

- Smokey is "special," according to Mother and can see ghosts on the Island. Jacob cannot.

- Smokey created the Donkey Wheel and intended to use it to go home.

- Smokey killed his Mother, after which she said "thank you."

- Jacob threw Smokey's body into The Source, out of which emerged the Smoke Monster and his brother's dead body.

- The mysterious boy seen on the Island in present time is really the ghost of Jacob. Why he's appearing as a boy to the candidates and Smokey while Hurley sees him as an adult is still a mystery, Maybe he's just messing with Smokey's mind.

- Smokey's original body and his Mother are Adam and Eve. Of all the disappointing reveals this episode, I found this one to me the most disappointing of all. After all the seasons of hype and speculation in a show filled with time travel we finally discover that Adam and Eve are (de)composed of a woman we've never seen before and the soulless corpse of Smokey. How... how... boring. I mean, really. Of all the possibilities out there this is the best they can come up with? Not to mention the fact that now we're supposed to believe that the skeletons that Jack had said had been there 40-50 years really have been there for centuries and still have decomposing clothes?

I suppose I should have expected this when Hurley gave a nod to the time travel theories back in Lighthouse, but this was just incredibly anti-climactic for me. And the splice of Season One footage was rather poorly done too, I thought. *sigh*

Anyway, there were some good things about the episode. The kids were excellently cast - spitting images of their adult counterparts. Jacob and Smokey are always a delight to see together and Smokey emerging from the Source was cool. Plus, we do have a lot to talk about.

OK, enough ranting. Lemonade out of lemons and all that. :)

Five Questions:

1) What is the energy at the Source of the Island and what did it do to Smokey?

When we first were shown the Source, two things came to mind for me: Midichlorians and Pulp Fiction. The former is not good, the latter makes me think of what the scene could have been. Wasted potential, especially when you have an actress of Allison Janney's caliber spouting off lines like "life, death, rebirth" and "the light that's inside of every man." Sigh.

Midichlorians, for those of you unfamilar, is George Lucas' feeble attempt to explain The Force in the later Star Wars films. What are midichlorians?

They are microscopic life-forms that reside within the cells of all living things and communicate with the Force. They are symbionts with all other living things and without them life could not exist. The Jedi have learned how to listen to and coordinate the midi-chlorians. While every living being thus has a connection to the Force, one must have a high enough concentration of midi-chlorians in one's cells in order to be a Jedi or a Sith.

Suffice it to say that this was one of George Lucas' worst ideas, and a self-inflicted one at that. The Force didn't need explaining, especially when that explanation is so ridiculous. Now the Source isn't quite that bad, but the cheesy yellow light coming from the cave and behind the wall in the well made me wince and groan. Now maybe The Source will be explained in more detail in the finale, but the vague explanation we got last night made me think they might have been better not saying anything about it at all, which brings me to Pulp Fiction.

One of the most iconic parts of Pulp Fiction was the briefcase John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson were picking up for their boss, Marcellus Wallace. We never see what's inside the case, but whenever it's opened, a bright orange light shines out, a light one character later describes as "beautiful." At its essence, it's a MacGuffin, pure and simple. And as a MacGuffin, it works because it leaves what's inside up to our imagination. In fact, Tarantino has stated that knowing what's inside the case "radically alters one's understanding of the movie."

Part of me feels, at least at this point, that the Source would have been better left a MacGuffin - we never see anything inside the cave with no explanation given for what it is, only that it's important and Jacob and Smokey have to protect it. This can also be used to change Jacob and Smokey's motivations as well: Smokey is curious and covets the light, wants to possess it. Jacob sees the importance in protecting it and finally understands what his Mother wants of him. There are some things you want definitive answers for and some that are better left alone. I think this (at this point - I may change my mind after the finale) would have been better left alone.

But given what we've been told, what is The Source? Seems to me that this is the collection of human souls unable to "pass on" because of their past sins, as Michael explained to Hurley. That's why ghosts can materialize on the Island - they're all floating around in The Source, waiting to be redeemed. Once they are, I'm guessing they have the chance to be either reincarnated or head to the afterlife. This is also why I think the Mother was cynical towards humans - she knows just how many souls are in there and how corruptible they are. And what happens if "the light goes out?" All the souls in The Source lose the chance to pass on - doomed to the Underworld for all eternity.

So what happened to Smokey when he entered The Source? When he came out of that cave the first thing I thought of was Pandora's Box, but I don't think that's what the writers were aiming for. I think The Source separated Smokey's soul, black and corrupted after his time with the humans, from his body and purged him from the cave. Thus, up until he got stuck in Locke's body by killing Jacob, he had no corporeal form and that's why he was able to shape-shift. And the punishment that's "worse than death" is his soul now has no opportunity whatsoever to pass on, in either direction. He's trapped on Earth for all eternity.

This also means that the consequences of Smokey escaping the Island would be the damnation of everyone else on the planet by the extinguishing of The Source and, possibly, also the total corruption of mankind by Smokey's cynical views.

Speaking of those views...

2) Is Smokey really the "Man of Science" and Jacob the "Man of Faith?"

"So, Lone Starr, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

This is another thing that bothered me about the episode. One of the standing themes through this past season is the difference in philosophy between Smokey and Jacob. Smokey sees mankind as irredeemably corrupt while Jacob sees the good in everyone. And since Smokey's been so clearly set up as the evil villain, especially after he tried to brutally kill all the candidates two episodes ago, I was really looking forward to a knockdown, drag-out battle of good vs. evil over the last couple episodes where I knew who I was rooting for to win.

Now I'm all for character development and I love every moment Jacob and Smokey spend on screen, but this episode not only shows Smokey in a new light, an intelligent, inquisitive man whose birth mother was murdered and who was forbidden from leaving the Island for reasons that were never fully explained to him, but also paints Jacob as a dumb, naive momma's boy who's entire optimistic view of mankind comes from the fact he was sheltered his entire life and all his vaunted power comes by default because his brother said "no thanks." Not to mention his temper tantrums that resulted in 1) Smokey running away to the humans and 2) the creation of the Smoke Monster himself.

It makes you feel sorry for Smokey and wonder if his worldview is correct because 1) he's actually experienced life among humans and 2) Jacob is dumb. It also makes Jacob the "Man of Faith" (fine.) and Smokey the "Man of Science" (really?), though that's kinda ironic considering Smokey now inhabits the previous Man of Faith's body, but I digress.

There's nothing wrong with blurring the lines between the two characters, after all, we did see Jacob waterboard Richard in Ab Aeterno. But ever since The Incident we've been led to believe that Smokey's worldview is cynical and wrong because he's the evil guy, right? Well now he seems more like a guy who got screwed over by a murderess and sheepish son and that just doesn't feel right to me.

And the final piece of this is that Jack is now going to be converted from the Man of Science to the Man of Faith in order to save the world. Too bad he's not a Momma's Boy... *sigh*

3) So who exactly is the Mother?

This seems to be the overwhelming question this episode introduced and the answer likely ties together all the Egyptian symbolism seen on the show so far. She seems to certainly be a deity of some sort or at least someone with god-like powers... and that would point to Taweret, right? Really can't think of anyone else it could be.

And since Jacob was so smitten with her and is likely responsible for the construction of the statue, I'm guessing he had the statue built as a memorial to her. This could also be the source of the problems with childbirth on the Island - the goddess of fertility was killed by her adopted son.

4) So the Donkey Wheel's entire purpose is merely an escape hatch for Smokey?

Seems like it. Smokey wanted to use "soul power" to open a wormhole that would allow him to escape, though it looks like the side effects of turning the wheel is not only that the person who turns the wheel moves, but the Island moves as well. And when Ben spun the wheel he knocked it off its axis and caused the Island to skip through time. I actually kinda like this explanation for it.

And this also means that Smokey plans to use the wheel to escape now that the sub and plane (not to mention the pilot) are out of commission.

5) Why can Smokey see ghosts, but Jacob cannot? Is Hurley as "special" as Smokey?

This kinda perplexes me, unless Smokey has some "special" connection to the Underworld, especially since you would think the Man of Faith would be the most likely of the two to see ghosts. And this makes me wonder whether Hurley and Smokey have some sort of connection as well.

Does every Jacob need his own Man in Black? Will Jack need Hurley on the Island to act as a bridge between him and the spirits? This makes me think Hurley is a lot more important than I thought and that perhaps Jacob is not responsible for him being able to see ghosts. Maybe he's just cut from the same cloth as Smokey. Good thing he doesn't have his cynicism.

Tidbits (and additional questions):

- The game Jacob and Smokey play is an ancient Egyptian game called Senet, one of the oldest games in the world whose rules are unknown to this day. No wonder they had to make the rules up as they went along.

- Will we ever get Smokey's name? Does he have a name? I'm not so sure that he does. After all, Claudia said that she only came up with one name - maybe they never gave him one. Of course, if he does have a name, it's something very, very significant which is why they're saving it for the finale. But I'm guessing that he might not have one altogether.

- So how will Jack become the new Jacob in the absence of wine? Will he have to eat Jacob's ashes? Given all the Christian imagery I wouldn't be surprised if all he has to do is smear some on his forehead. I thought the wine thing was really poorly done, though it does make me wonder whether Jacob was trying to trick Smokey when he gave him the wine bottle, i.e. drink this and we'll be as one. Makes me also wonder if Richard is also special since he also shared wine with Jacob.

- Despite all this gloominess, I did really like the Doors-themed preview for next week and I am looking forward to it.

Summary:

Despite some very good casting and cinematography, I was very disappointed in this episode, not just in the reveals, but also in the alteration of my sympathies towards Jacob and Smokey. Now maybe this will change in the last two episodes and I'll be able to look back at "Across the Sea" in a completely different light, but for now it gets a 2/5.

Very interested to hear all your thoughts. Am I overreacting? As Rachel Maddow would say, "talk me down."

Lost Episode Review 6.14: "The Candidate"

"Because it's going to be you, Jack..."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

Welcome to the action-packed review of The End, Part II of VI... at least, that's what it felt like. My predictions were not too bad this week, depending on whether you think Claire's really gone back over to the dark side or not. I had accepted the fact that all the Losties weren't going to make it through the finale, but I really didn't see us losing Sayid (who did indeed manage to redeem himself), Frank, Jin and Sun this episode. Em had tears streaming down her face as they sank, though I managed to fend the waterworks off. That was really the reunion scene we were waiting for - so much better than the previous episode. The scene where Sun gave Jin back his ring was really sweet as well.

Really I didn't see this episode coming at all. I was expecting a lot more conversation - especially between Jack and Smokey, plus some catching up plot-wise with Widmore, Desmond and Richard and company (and the latter two we didn't see at all). Instead we got an hour of action which ended up halving the number of viable candidates and took out the only pilot on the Island (poor Frank).

And so then there were three... Jack, Hurley and Sawyer. And Sayid claims that Jack's "the one." Is he right? I think so, and it looks like the next step is to collect Desmond before Smokey finds him.

As a side note, this may be the last week I'm really able to do five questions, considering there are only four and a half hours of the show left (yes, you read that right - the finale's been extended by another half hour) and it feels like we're already in the endgame, so my reviews will probably be a bit more general over the next two weeks and I'll have an overall show wrap-up after the finale.

1) Will the Alt be LOST's happy ending?

My official answer to this is "no," because my gut feeling is that Lost is not going to have a touchy-feeley happy ending. But didn't you get a vibe this week that the Alt is going to replace the regular universe? After all, everything seems to be going pretty swimmingly for Alt Jack; he's a good doctor with a much improved bedside manner, he's a good father who's not a drunk (which is always a plus), he's been united with his half-sister who's about to give birth to his nephew and he's above all happy with his life.

And, yeah, not all the other Losties are happy in the Alt, but at least they're alive. And since the body count in the regular universe looks to be extraordinarily high, seems the only way to get a happy ending for all our Losties is to have the Alt replace the regular universe entirely now. And if that happens, it seems to me that it's all going to be up to Jack.

A lot has been made about how everyone, manipulated by Desmond, is converging on the hospital. But I don't necessarily think it's to bring them all together - I think Desmond's sending them all to Jack. Maybe one Alt Jack achieves some Desmond-like awareness, he's going to have to choose which timeline stays and which timeline dies. Seems kinda like a no brainer at first: Everyone alive with happy Jack or Everyone dead with sad Jack.

But what if the choice is more complicated than that? We still don't know if Smokey even exists in the Alt and if he does, what effect he's had on that universe. That could be a deciding factor, but I'm guessing it's going to be something sappier than that - namely that if he chooses the Alt universe, Jack will be choosing a universe where he never knows Kate. And I can't help shake the feeling that whatever Jack chooses, Kate is going to play a large role in the decision.

2) Where the heck did Widmore get a list from? Did Jacob give him one as well?

The fact that Widmore had a list surprised me; Jacob's the list maker around these parts. Did he personally enlist Widmore to come to the rescue? And what does that say about Ilana - did Jacob use Widmore as his backup plan because he knew she was going to blow herself up? Kind of a gruesome thought.

And it seems that Widmore's list contained the same six candidates as Ilana's (Sayid and Jack weren't mentioned because they weren't with the group at the time). I kinda liked the fact the writers were pretty explicit in saying Kate wasn't a candidate - not only did Sawyer mention Kate's name was crossed off the cave wall, but Widmore seemed pretty adamant about it as well.

Of course this means that Kate will almost certainly survive until the end of the show. Methinks she has a bit of Mikhail in her now.

3) So how's Smokey getting off the Island now?

OK, so if Smokey's plan wasn't to take either the plane or the sub, how's he getting off the Island? Two choices I see:

a) He lied to Sawyer previously and really can fly off the Island once all the other candidates are dead.

b) He's going to take the Elizabeth.

Personally I don't think he's going to escape at all. But he's got to at least have a plan for leaving now, right? And I think he can fly - after all, didn't Jacob say that once the cork has been popped, the evil can spread? Methinks Smokey can simply leave if he manages to kill Jack, Hurley and Sawyer.

4) What's the deal with Christian's music box?

Have we ever seen it before? I don't think so. Seems to be something totally new - it's certainly not Danielle's music box - the only other music box we've seen on the show that I can recall. Was there anything inside it? Seems they went out of their way not to show us the contents. And what was the song? Was it Catch A Falling Star? I think it was - can't imagine it would be anything else.

Here's my fearless prediction as to what's inside: The black and white stones that Jack found on Adam and Eve.

5) Would the bomb have gone off if Sawyer hadn't messed with it?

I don't think it would have. Jack was right - just like the dynamite in the Black Rock the candidates can't die by their own hand or by Smokey's hand directly, but they can kill each other indirectly (and I guess Sawyer manipulating the bomb qualifies as indirect). Of course, this begs the question as to whether Sawyer would have survived the bomb he manipulated himself, but let's not go there.

No, this episode definitely confirmed that Smokey can't kill the candidates directly. He needs to find someone to do his dirty work for him... and that's where Claire comes in (hopefully).

Tidbits:

- Loved the backgammon preview for next week - want to watch it again in slow-mo. Here's hoping we'll get a hefty helping of Jacob and Smokey.

- I loved Alt Jack's new bedside manner. He's happy! He's optimistic! I think I might actually want him as my doctor! Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen Jack smile as much on the show as he does in the Alt. :)

- Locke mumbled "Push the button" and "I wish you had believed me" in his sleep in the hospital, the latter of which was what was in his suicide note to Jack. Alt Jack then turns it around by saying it back to Locke later on. He also said "whatever happened, happened" to Locke as well.

- Thought what happened to Locke and Cooper was heartbreaking. And there's something about Locke using the wheelchair as his penance that I like a lot.

- Anyone else think Hurley and Jack escaped from the sub a wee bit too easily given they were respectively hauling along a shot Kate and an unconscious Sawyer?

- Also anyone else a bit disappointed we didn't get a fish biscuit? :)

- And where the heck did Smokey get his bomb making ability? Did he pick Sayid's brain or something?

- Jack bought an Apollo candy bar and offered it to Claire in the exact same way Jacob offered it to Jack in "The Incident"

- Frank deserved a better death than to be floored by a sub door. :P

Summary:

The last 15 minutes of this episode were about as good as anything Lost has done, and Jin and Sun's death scene will almost certainly make my best moments list. Everything up until that though (in the present timeline anyway) felt a little contrived and Locke's backpack switcheroo was just a little too telegraphed for my taste. Still, the ending makes this easily a 4.5/5

Lost Episode Review 6.13: "The Last Recruit"

"John Locke was not a believer, Jack. He was a sucker..."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

Once again all of my predictions were totally wrong, but this time I don't feel quite so bad. Just who was the last recruit anyway? Jack, I suppose, not that he really joined up with Locke. Maybe it's because he's the only one left now after everyone else got blown up? It would be interesting to have Jack and Locke together for the remainder of the series, kinda like a warped version of "Midnight Run." And you know some portion of the finale is going to come down to Jack vs. Locke, as it should be.

To me this episode felt like The End, Part I of VI. It moved things along, got a lot of pieces into place (especially in the Alt, which I really dug) and set things up for the final stretch. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), it felt kinda slow to me. Yeah, a lot of stuff happened, but the end result was just to shuffle a bunch of people around. Not a whole lot of big reveals and the ones we got (like Smokey finally admitting to Jack he was one impersonating Christian) weren't really earth-shattering.

And I was disappointed that a lot of the tension that had built up in some storylines and subplots were diffused so easily, especially in Kate confronting Claire and the Hurley/Smokey talk, which turned into a Hurley/Jack talk instead (which was neat, but was I the only one expecting something a lot more suspenseful in the culmination of Hurley's plan)? Claire started off so wonderfully creepy this episode with her "you're with him" conversation, had some tension build when she said Locke's the only one who didn't "abandon her" and then was summarily abandoned by all the Losties, but had all that wonderful tension totally diffused by... a Kate sob story? Disappointing.

As far as the Alt goes, Desmond is acting as chessmaster, setting up the board for some grand design. I loved every moment of the Alt and now we have a plan to get just about everyone together at the same time. Jack's at the hospital with Locke, Ben, Sun and Jin. Presumably Miles and Sawyer will be coming to interview Jin (and Ben for that matter, since he saw Desmond). Sayid and Kate will probably be sharing a jail cell at some point and Claire and Ilana will have at least one more meeting with Jack. It's all coming together, the only question now is "For what?"

It was particularly difficult to find five questions this week because, by and large, they're the same questions we've been asking all season. We're a little bit closer to getting the answers, but nothing was really clarified. But I think I made a valiant effort here. :)

Five Questions:

1) Can Claire and Sayid be redeemed?

As I mentioned before, the one striking thing about this episode to me (that was actually kinda disappointing) was how both Claire and Sayid both made choices that were less, well, evil than in recent episodes. Claire in particular seemed to do a 360 - she seemed so evil and manipulative early on with Jack and the others, but seemed to melt after Kate had a heart-to-heart with her. Raise your hand if you expected Claire to fire. I sure did. Seemed too easy to me.

Sayid also softened after Desmond asked him what he would say to his dead lover when Smokey brought her back (which I thought was a very good scene). Perhaps Evil Minion Sayid can feel something after all? He certainly let Desmond live and I suspect he helped him out of the well as well. So what's the future hold for these two?

If they really are both dead and resurrected by Smokey's black magic, they're probably not getting off the Island. But perhaps their souls can be redeemed by sacrificing themselves for the others. I'm guessing Sayid in particular is going to sacrifice himself to save Jack or one of the other candidates at some point.

Though I'm still holding out hope that Claire's hunger for Kate's brain will return.

2) What will happen when Jack fixes Locke's spine?

Locke's going to walk again, for certain. And now it seems that the sole purpose of Desmond running Locke over was so that Jack could operate on him. Will this merely help both Jack and Locke remember or is it something more powerful than that. In the first few seasons, Locke's wheelchair came to represent everything that was pathetic and futile about his life. Does it also carry a greater significance here?

One other Alt thing: Obviously the shooting has restored Sun's memory of the original timeline as well since she recognized Locke (or did she recognize Smokey - seemed kinda scared when she noticed him).

3) What did Claire mean when she said "if you spoke with him, you're with him."

This goes back to the same "don't let him speak to you" line that Dogen said to Sayid and Smokey said to Richard (referring to Jacob). It could simply be that Smokey's a very good persuader - in other words, there's nothing special about talking to him, it's just that he's really good at getting people to do his evil bidding. If Eve had never spoken to the Serpent, there would never had been a Fall, after all.

But all of these "don't talk to him" instances seem to indicate it might be something more. Can Smokey plant the seeds of infection through his voice? Is that how the evil spreads throughout the world? If so, Jack might be in a world of trouble if he's going to be buddy-buddy with Smokey for the rest of the show.

4) Can Widmore stop Smokey without Desmond?

Judging from Tina Fey's actions this episode, Widmore seems just a wee bit desperate to get Desmond back. Now this implies either 1) that Widmore doesn't think Desmond knows what he has to do yet or 2) Widmore thinks he has no chance of stopping Smokey without Desmond.

It could also be some kind of combination between those two - he needs Desmond to release some EM energy in order to stop Smokey, but if Smokey's coming to Hydra Island now, does Widmore have anything in his sub aside from the fancy sonic pylons to stop Smokey or keep him at bay long enough to let Desmond do what he has to do.

I don't think he does. And I think we're going to see a Smokey rampage in an episode or two. But ironically, there is someone on Hydra Island with a weapon that might be able to hold Smokey at bay: Hurley, and his pouch of Jacob's ashes. Widmore might have been unwittingly handed the best weapon remaining on the Island... if he doesn't shoot Hurley first.

5) Where is Desmond now?

I was going to title this "Did Sayid really kill Desmond," but we all know the answer to that. No, the real question is where did Desmond go, since I imagine Sayid also helped him out of the well.

Presuming he knows what Widmore needs him to do, I imagine he's heading towards one of the pockets of EM on the Island. If he doesn't know, he heading back to Widmore... on Hydra Island... where Smokey's heading. That would be bad. Methinks Desmond knows better than that. I expect to see Desmond at a new DHARMA station in an episode or two and I'm guessing Charles is going to try and meet him there.

Tidbits:

- Augh! No new Lost next week? And they didn't even warn us? The rest of the season runs straight through after that, but still... way to ruin my Lost buzz, man. :P

- "There are pills for that, Doc." Sawyer still gets the best line of the night award.

- Ilana's office was on the 15th floor in the law offices of "Sweetzer & Verdansky"

- Nice to see the "Elizabeth" again, though I can't believe they all simply abandoned it and swam aboard. Why not simply dock the ship - felt weird to me.

- Still want to know who Jack's ex-wife is. Still think it's Juliet.

- Anyone else think it's weird Sawyer didn't know who Anakin was?

- Also, when Sawyer called Frank "someone who came out of a Burt Reynolds movie," I was actually surprised he didn't reference "The Love Boat" instead.

Summary:

This was an okay episode for me. It felt kinda scattered since there was no centricity, but it certainly moved things along. 3/5. Now we have the long two-week wait until The End, Part II. :P

Lost Episode Review 6.12: "Everybody Loves Hugo"

"Dead people are more reliable than alive people..."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

Well, not only were most of my predictions totally wrong, but I completely forgot Richard said they were going to destroy the plane two weeks ago. Yeek. But I've never been so happy to be so totally wrong.

I loved this episode from start to finish. Yeah, a few of the scenes were a bit disjointed and some of the motivations seemed kinda forced (like Hurley taking everyone to Locke, the explanation for the Whispers), but this episode totally shocked me twice: When Ilana got the Arzt treatment and when Alt Desmond flattened Alt Locke with his car (Locke sending Desmond well-diving you could see coming from a mile away). Lost is always at its best when it surprises and tonight was probably the best twisty-turny episode of the season.

Not to mention, there we're so many great little things about last night:

- Pierre Chang giving Hurley his T-Rex award. I want one of those.
- Seeing Michael again.
- Seeing Libby again.
- Ben's morose monologue about Ilana and the Island. He's kinda got a point too.
- Smokey trying to figure out Desmond.
- Alt Desmond looking so cool, calm and collected, helping people get their memories back
- Hurley and Libby getting their picnic on the beach. I never really bought the two of them together - always thought it was kinda forced - but there was some genuine chemistry last night.
- The trippy "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" preview for next week, which was taken from a 2005 album by Pendulum.

Just so much win this episode. Kudos to Jorge Garcia who gave it all last night.

Lots to ponder here, eh? Time to... *puts on Desmond's sunglasses*... ask some questions, brutha!

Five questions:

1) Is Alt Locke really Smokey? Does he realize he's Smokey?

The ending of the episode totally shocked me. At first I thought Desmond was simply trying to shake Locke's memory loose, but 1) Desmond hit Locke a wee bit too hard to just be trying to jog his memory and 2) he certainly didn't have to do that to Hurley to get his brain moving. So why kill Locke?

The most obvious answer is that Alt Locke is really Alt Smokey who, like all of the other Losties, has lost his memory in this pocket universe as well. If this is true (which it very well may not be - maybe Locke needs to die to collapse the pocket universe or something), it would suggest a number of things about the Alt:

1) Smokey is just as trapped as the rest of the Losties

2) Smokey is still stuck in Locke's form

3) Smokey didn't create the pocket universe at all

There are a couple things I like about this theory, especially in that it explains why the Alt is so normal. After all, the Island is destroyed in the Alt and the world certainly doesn't seem to be this Hell that everyone says would come about if Smokey escaped. Also I've been expecting Smokey to make an appearance in the Alt for several episodes now and this would certainly explain his absence. It also gives us another theory as to why the Alt exists: It's a last-ditch effort to contain Smokey.

With the Island gone, Smokey is free. But let's say someone (or some people) created the Alt at the last minute to prevent Smokey from escaping into the world, and you have to think Eloise is one of the primary masterminds here. Thus the Alt is really a proxy for the Island here - it's simply a prison to contain Smokey and everyone else just got taken along for the ride.

But there are a few problems with this theory. First if all, if this is the case, what good would it do to destroy the Alt? Seems in this case you'd want to keep it intact since you get the best of both worlds: Smokey contained and most of the Losties are happy. Furthermore it seems weird that Smokey would be trapped in Locke's form here since he didn't attain the form until 2007 in the present day universe.

I'm not totally comfortable with this theory - too many loopholes, so to speak. But I think we can say for certain that Desmond wants Alt Locke dead for some reason and that seems to suggest to me that if Locke isn't Smokey in this universe, then Smokey needs Alt Locke alive for some reason.

Poor Locke. Has anyone in the history of television had a more miserable existence?

2) Does Smokey really know what Desmond can do or why Widmore really wants him?

The conversation with Desmond and Smokey intrigued me in that Smokey really didn't seem to know what to do with Desmond. He insinuated that Widmore wanted to use Desmond as a compass to locate pockets of EM energy around the Island. This is plausible at face value, but doesn't seem to be what Widmore needs him for. After all, Widmore now has Jin to show him where the pockets of EM are, that's why he kidnapped him in the first place.

And Desmond was almost certainly lying when he told Smokey he was "John Locke" - I think Desmond knew exactly what Smokey really was. In fact, since Desmond's Alt trip, both versions of Desmond seem to have complete awareness of what's going on, which partially makes me think Desmond wanted to get thrown down the well knowing that 1) he'd survive and 2) there may be a pocket of EM energy down there. Note that the well Smokey threw Locke down was not the Orchid well. There's no Donkey Wheel down there for Desmond to turn.

If all this is true, it says a couple things to me: 1) Smokey isn't able to read minds anymore and 2) Smokey probably decided to kill Desmond just in case. You have to think if Smokey could still read minds, he would have scanned Desmond for sure, but lacking that option after a normal interrogation probably figured the safest thing to do was to simply get rid of him. Bit surprised he didn't go full blown Smoke Monster on him. All the James Bond villain ghosts on the Island must be facepalming right now, since he'd certainly still alive. Speaking of which...

3) Why are all the ghosts stuck on the Island? Can they interact with each other at all?

So the Whispers are really the muttering of ghosts who, in Michael's words, "can't move on." This seems to suggest the Island is really some kind of purgatory for wayward souls, even though it does seem to really physically exist in the world as well. And remember that since Hurley saw Richard's wife on the Island, it's not necessarily only people who have died on the Island either - it really seems to be a full-blown purgatory for spirits.

Looking back at some of Lostpedia's whisper transcripts, it does seem that the spirits can interact somewhat, talking to each other while they observe the living people on the Island. But it's kinda weird that Michael told Hurley to tell Libby he's sorry if he sees her. After all, if Hurley sees her wouldn't that suggest she's trapped on the Island just like Michael?

So why are the spirits stuck there? Is there something that can be done to help them move on? I'm guessing that the new Jacob will be able to address this question in the series finale.

4) If Jack becomes the new Jacob, will Hurley become the new Richard?

All through this episode I sat thinking, "Man, Richard is really useless now. Hurley's doing his entire job for him." And doesn't it seem weird that even though Jacob told Ilana that Richard would know what to do, Richard really doesn't seem to have a clue? When Jack interrupted Richard's suicide attempt in the Black Rock, we never actually got to see whether it would have worked in the absence of Jack. I'm betting that with Jacob dead, Richard can die now and will do so before the end of the season.

Now the new Jacob doesn't necessarily need a new Richard; he or she can simply choose talk to people directly. But I was struck by the conversation Jack and Hurley had in the jungle where Jack told Hurley that he trusted him and Hurley then gave Jack some advice - seemed like a really great working relationship to me.

So what would be Hurley's motivation to stay on the Island if Jack is chosen as the new Jacob? How about being able to talk to ghostly Libby all the time?

5) Does Hurley plan to try and trap Smokey with Jacob's ashes?

When Hurley went through Ilana's belongings, he grabbed a drawstring bag, which is probably the one Ilana filled with Jacob's ashes back in LA X. Is the reason Hurley suggested that everyone go see Smokey because he's planning to try and trap him a different way? If so, suddenly Hurley's decision to travel to Locke makes a lot more sense. I do kinda wish he had said to Jack "I have a plan" or something, but I'm betting we'll see those ashes in action sometime in the near future.

Tidbits:

- So if Smokey kills Desmond and Alt Desmond kills Alt Smokey will the universe implode?

- So Jacob told Richard once what the Island really was. Any chance Ben or Miles will follow up on this in the next few episodes? Ordinarily I'd say no, but we are awfully close to the end of the show.

- Interesting that Desmond could also see Jacob/Aaron in the jungle. Richard couldn't see him, but Sawyer could. Does this mean Desmond's a candidate too? There's certainly something very significant about people who are able to see him and that boy is the one thing on the Island that seems to annoy the heck out of Smokey. At first glance, the boy seemed older to me too, but it seems to be the same young actor in both episodes.

- I love Locke's curious head nod (like the one he used when he saw Desmond for the first time), which makes him look like he's a velociraptor, right before it's about to tear your face off. ;)

- The book Hurley picked up from Ilana's stuff was Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

- "You talk to wood now?" Sawyer still gets all the best lines despite his limited screen time. Seriously though, what was Smokey carving that stick for? Is it a new Jesus Stick?

- A while ago I tried to predict what centricity the remaining Lost episodes would be. My predictions:

6.08: Sawyer
6.09: Jin/Sun
6.10: Ilana
6.11: Claire
6.12: Frank
6.13: Charles Widmore
6.14: Hurley
6.15: Richard
6.16: Desmond

And what we've gotten so far is:

6.08: Sawyer
6.09: Richard
6.10: Jin/Sun
6.11: Desmond
6.12: Hurley

Out of my remaining four predictions, the only plausible one I think is left is Charles. Ilana is now gone and Frank and Claire just don't seem that likely to me. So who could the remaining four be? Well, there always could be a repeat from earlier in the season - Jack being the most likely candidate (pun intended) there. But I can't see having really more than two repeats, so were going to have to get at least one more new (for this season) flash in addition to Charles (assuming Charles actually gets one).

So now that Richard, Ben and Miles are broken off into their own group, I really think Miles is going to get an episode. He's the only one of the three who hasn't gotten one this season and he ties into Sawyer and Kate's Alt stories, so we'd be able to see the resolution of that storyline (of course, they'll all probably be getting a visit from Desmond soon).

- Another good thing about a Miles-centric episode this season: More Daddy Chang. :)

- Desmond's order number at Mr. Cluck's was 42.

- Did Dr. Brooks have that photo of an Island in his office in the original timeline? I think he did, but it's been a while since I've seen "Dave."

Summary:

I loved this episode from start to finish. Is it a Top 10? Don't know yet, but it's got two top Lost moment contenders in Ilana blowing up and Desmond running over Locke. Regardless it's one of the best episodes this season. 4.8/5

Lost Episode Review 6.11: "Happily Ever After"

"It's okay. I understand. When do we start?"

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

If there was ever an episode in need of a second watchthrough, it's this one. I loved it from start to finish, but I'm still not 100% sure of what I just saw. We certainly learned a few things about the Alt, but I can't quite figure out how all the pieces fit together. So what do we now know for certain?

1) All the Flight 815ers in the Alt have buried memories of the original timeline and it seems they can be brought out spontaneously with a traumatic event (Charlie choking to death, Desmond nearly drowning) or through dreams (Daniel).

2) Seems many of the Flight 815ers have been given "the thing they wanted more than anything," as Eloise said to Desmond. Jack's a good father, Hurley's lucky and everyone likes him, Locke has Helen (and possibly a relationship with his dad), Sawyer's a cop instead of a criminal, Desmond has Charles' approval. Even Eloise has it pretty good - married to Charles with Daniel alive again. More on that last one later.

3) Desmond seems able to mind shift between the Alt like he did in Flashes Before Your Eyes. And I think it's neat that he flashed back at the moment he ran into his constant.

In fact, this entire episode was really just an alternate reality echo of Flashes Before Your Eyes, but in Flashes, didn't Eloise say that time has a way of "course correcting?" This is clearly not how things were meant to be and it seems that everyone regaining their memories is the key to setting everything on its proper course again.

This review was probably the hardest one for me to write so quickly. I might do a follow-up review in a few days after it's had time to marinate a bit more in my brain.

Five Questions:

1) So what exactly is the Alt Universe?

All of a sudden the Alt looks a lot less like an alternate timeline and more like a pocket universe to me. The difference? An alternate timeline is where something changes at a critical juncture in time creating a branch in the time stream. Think Back to the Future when Marty saves his Dad from getting hit by the car. But the bottom line is that alternate timelines are usually connected at some early point. Up until now, this is what I thought the Alt was, but now it seems more like a combination of that and a pocket universe.

A pocket universe doesn't necessarily have to be part of the original timeline at some branch point - it can be a totally separate entity, existing in its own rules. The best illustration of this is in Marvel Comics' Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught storylines. But one of the most common characteristics of a pocket universe is that the latter often can be created by a separate (powerful) entity and used as a prison to contain people in a way so that they don't realize they're being contained. Kind of like the Matrix and Liddleville from the Fantastic Four comics, but in this case the Losties don't just have their memories transported - they are in the pocket universe, at least that's what Jack's appendix scar and cut on his neck seem to suggest.

Doesn't it strike you as odd that the Alt universe is so... comfortable for so many of the Losties? As I mentioned before, Eloise pointed out that Desmond was given the thing he desired the most, Charles Widmore's approval. In fact, just about everyone was given lives that make them relatively content and free of the angst that plague them in the regular universe. Yes, they still have problems - Charlie's still a druggie, Kate's still a fugitive, Sayid's still a killer, but they're all in lives that seem to keep them docile and contained. This really suggests to me that Smokey is using the Alt to prevent things from changing back and prevent the time stream from course correcting itself like it normally would.

So what is the Alt, how was it created, where does it exist and what is its relationship to the regular universe? Here's my current theory - Remember that Juliet detonated the bomb on the Island in 1977. In doing so, it seems the Island was destroyed, likely freeing Smokey to wreak havoc upon the world. But the universe doesn't want the bomb to go off - ideally it wants the Incident to happen so that the Swan is created and Flight 815 crashes, but it doesn't want to destroy the Island. So the way to correct all this is to send all the time travelers to 2007 present day timeline before Juliet detonates the bomb. But let's say that Smokey, at that moment, somehow created a pocket universe to contain all the time travelers, altering their memories and preventing them from reaching 2007. They still have memories of the normal timeline buried deep down, but they're buried as long as they're kept happy and content.

So what happens now? I think the time travelers will eventually escape from the pocket universe with the help of Desmond and will end up in the present day. Thus when we saw them all in LA X at the destroyed Swan site, they basically had just emerged from the pocket universe. Yes, this would mean that the sideways flashes are actually flashbacks if we take them in chronological order. None of the present day time travelers have any memory of the pocket universe anymore, but I think the Alt storyline is going to end with all the time travelers (meaning Jack, Kate, Hurley, Jin, Sawyer, Miles, Sayid and Juliet) returning to 2007. Obviously Smokey would prefer to keep the pocket universe intact - that way there's no risk of one of the candidates becoming the new Jacob. However, at least Smokey has his loophole as a backup plan in the present day timeline.

And it's also possible that the only way to collapse the pocket universe is for all the time travelers to choose to come back. This may be a very difficult thing for many of them to do, especially since one 1) it would mean many people who are alive in the Alt - (Charlie, Daniel, Charlotte, Nadia, Alex, Helen and possibly Juliet, who I still think is Jack's ex-wife) would die again and 2) it would mean returning to the misery of their former lives. But I think many of them would still choose to do so, even if their lives are less "perfect."

Is this right? I have no idea. I think I'm going to have to reserve the right to revise this theory after another viewing and some sleep and caffeine. :)

2) Did the two Desmonds mind-switch? Do both of them have all their memories?

Given that Alt Desmond fainted in the stadium, it seems almost certain that Desmond mind-switched with his Alt counterpart, but his reaction when he returned to the present day universe was odd. I still don't quite understand why Desmond simply ran off with Sayid (or why Sayid let the Tina Fey clone live for that matter). Seems to me that the Hydra Island experiment sent Desmond's mind into his Alt counterpart where he experienced everything in the episode then returned. That's fine.

But if he has clarity about what the Alt universe is now, why would he go with Sayid so willingly? The only thing I can think of is that he knows what he has to do to change things back and he can accomplish it by going to see Smokey.

Why spend the effort searching him out when Dark Minion Sayid would gladly lead the way? :)

3) Is Eloise working for Smokey?

At first glance, it certainly seems Eloise has no desire to upset the status quo in the Alt, but does this mean she's in cahoots with Smokey? I don't think she's exactly working for him, per se, but I do think she has a vested interest in keeping the Alt intact. After all, of all the people we've seen in the Alt, she has pretty much has the best life of them all. She's married to her one true love, who happens to be the most one of the most powerful men in the world while her son, Daniel, is still alive (instead of dead by her hand) and is a talented classical pianist. What more could anyone ask for?

I think Eloise is simply looking out for herself, an dark twist given how tirelessly she worked to keep the normal, traumatic timeline (where she shoots Daniel and sends Desmond to the Island) in place. Smokey gave her everything she ever wanted in the Alt. All she has to do in return is help keep it intact, which brings us to...

4) Why would Desmond regaining his memories be a "violation?"

I think it's a violation of the agreement Smokey made with Eloise. I think he gave her everything she wanted in exchange for helping keep all the Losties in check. That's why she didn't blast Desmond for losing Charlie - she wants to keep him placated and happy.

Question now is, what happens when Alt Smokey finds out the Losties are regaining their memories and that Desmond is actively helping them do so? Will he step in and take matters into his own hands? I've been expecting this for several episodes now - I do hope this was the breaking point that will draw him out into the open.

5) What's the sacrifice Desmond's going to have to make?

Desmond can survive "catastrophic EM events." I'm guessing Charles needs him to release another pocket (or pockets) of EM energy on the Island because he's the only one that can do it. But I'm also guessing that, like the Donkey Wheel and the Failsafe Key, there's a side effect of releasing the energy. And maybe that side effect is that Desmond gets sent though a wormhole to another time and/or place where he never gets to see Penny and Charlie ever again, but he also can take comfort in knowing that they will be alive and safe.

I wonder if Charles has an extra copy of "Our Mutual Friend" lying around anywhere? :)

Tidbits:

- I loved all the warped nods to previous episodes we got. My favorites:

1) Desmond saves Charlie from drowning, a successful version of "Through the Looking Glass"

2) Charles shares his MacCutcheon whiskey with Desmond after denying him a taste in "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

3) Daniel becomes a classical pianist, instead of Eloise pushing him into science ala "The Variable"

4) Eloise basically tries to prevent Desmond from fulfilling his destiny in "Flashes Before Your Eyes

- Got two eye shots of Desmond this episode - both right, I believe.

- Flight 815's luggage was on Carousel 4.

- The rabbit was named "Angstrom," a unit of atomic measurement and a nifty literature reference to boot.

- Penny's last name is Milton? Paradise Lost anyone? Think this is a subtle hint that Desmond and Penny are really Adam and Eve? Don't know how Penny would get back in time though at this point, unless she comes out of the Magic Box.

- Great seeing George Minkowski again too. Hope we get more of him.

- Desmond did seem to have a wedding band in LA X, a blooper, it seems. Thus I think that's why the writers went out of their way to have George point out that Desmond wasn't wearing one here.

- Loved the Watchmen reference (to Dr. Manhattan's creation) when Desmond was trapped in the velociraptor crate.

- Loved the pic of the scales in Alt Widmore's office. Is it a Jack Bender original?



- I've never been a big Charlie fan, but I did enjoy Dominic's performance here - seemed like he was having a lot of fun with the role. It was funny seeing him run around in that hospital gown too.

Summary:

After Season 3 ended, my #1 favorite episode was Flashes Before Your Eyes. If I did my Top 10 list today, I think it would be The Constant. Is "Happily Ever After" better than either of those? I don't think so at this point, but this might well be an episode that looks even better in retrospect after the season is over. Either way, it's the most thought provoking episode we've had this season. 4.5/5

Lost Episode Review 6.10: "The Package"

"The heart wants what the heart wants."

(Thanks to Dark UFO for all the screencaps).

Man, I nearly struck out on my predictions this week. And even the one I got right, I still got totally wrong, since Widmore's locked room really did have a person in it. But to be fair I did speculate that if it was someone, it would either be Eloise or Desmond. Charles seemed to give Desmond an offer he couldn't refuse. Desmond was certainly going to get back to the Island one way or another. I guess this was the quickest way for the writers to get him there.

And I have to say the teaser for next week made me about as excited as I've been. Not only do Desmond episodes rock, but we really need to find out what's going on with his Alt self - that story could very answer any lingering questions as to whether the two universes are related at all.

Of course, next week might not be a Desmond episode yet, since we do need to see the events that led up to Desmond becoming The Package. And probably the best way to get that story is with some Charles Widmore flashbacks, right? I guess either way we win! :)

Despite not being quite as good as last week, there was lots to love this episode. Some of my faves:

- The night vision camera view at the beginning.

- Seeing Sun's garden again.

- Sun and Jin's relationship, as always.

- Seeing Patchy again (and his death was probably the eye-light of the episode). ;)

- The return of Room 23! Have to get a look at those screencaps. Was it the same movie Karl was watching? Looks pretty similar.

- Smokey serving up Kate's brain to Claire on a platter.

- Jin viewing Ji-Yeon for the first time. Three hanky scene for me.

- Alt Sun getting shot. As soon as Patchy dragged her into the kitchen I knew something bad was going to happen.

- Loved, loved, loved Jack's "stubborn tomato" talk to Sun, though the more he acts like he's going to be the next Jacob, the more I think we're going to get a curveball and it'll end up being someone else. Like Kate.

This week's questions are slightly less metaphysical, but what they are, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple. Onward!

Five questions:

1) Why is Widmore interested in the Island's pockets of electromagnetism?

I really liked how this subplot tied in Jin's time travel as well. Charles kidnapped Jin because he wanted some questions answered on where DHARMA was investigating pockets of electromagnetism on the Island back in the 70's. But why is Widmore interested? Will this help him stop Smokey?

Electromagnetism has always been the blanket explanation for just about everything mysterious happening on the Island: Healing properties, why it's hard to locate, why it's hard to leave, time travel, etc. And EM was a major interest of DHARMA which constructed stations to investigate two such pockets of energy: The Swan and The Orchid.

Now if you remember, Smokey seemed to have a very vested interest in keeping the button in the Swan pushed and the energy there contained. He appeared to Eko in a dream and told him that Locke had "lost his way" and that the button had to be pushed. Then, when the Swan was destroyed, Smokey went ballistic and killed Eko.

At first, I thought all of this was part of Smokey's grand plan to find a loophole - i.e. his original plan involved the Swan staying intact, but its destruction forced him to turn to Plan B (The Orchid). But now I'm thinking that maybe there's something more going on here. Perhaps the reason Smokey got so mad when the Swan's energy was released is because if all the Island's energy is released with him still on it, he can die!

Now we know that the Swan energy is gone, but the Orchid's energy still seems to be there, at least it was when Locke put the wheel back on its axis and stopped the Island from skipping through time. But looking at Jin's map, we can see at least three distinct areas on the Island with electromagnetism that DHARMA was interested in. Take a look:




Two of them are most certainly The Swan and The Orchid, but what is the third? I'm guessing that there's at least one more DHARMA station we haven't seen yet and that Widmore wants to release the energy from it (and the Orchid as well), in hopes it will kill Smokey once and for all.

The catch? I'm betting the third and final pocket of energy is going to have to be destroyed manually, meaning someone's going to have to stay behind to get the job done and that someone is going to have to die. Welcome to your destiny, Jack.

2) Does Smokey really have to take all the candidates with him? Is he allowed to kill them?

Back in "The Substitute," the mysterious young blond kid, presumed by most to be either Aaron or Jacob, told Smokey he couldn't kill Saywer because it was against the rules. Now we learn that all the remaining candidates have to leave the Island with him or else he can't leave. This leaves Smokey with only a few choices here:

1) Convince them all to leave with him.
2) Get someone else to kill them instead.
3) Bring them all along by force.

I'm thinking #3 might be against the rules as well, y'know, free will and all that, which leaves him with only two options. I do wonder if Infected People count as someone else? If so, Smokey could simply unleash Claire and Sayid on them. If not, he's going to have to manipulate someone else into killing recalcitrant candidates, and there aren't too many of those left. Thus methinks Smokey's going to have really turn on the charm the next several episodes.

But the downside of all this is that it's really easy to stop Smokey from leaving. For all Richard's huffing and puffing about going to Hydra Island to stop Smokey, all he really has to do is keep one of Hurley or Jack away from Smokey (Sun may not be an actual candidate). Probably the worst thing they can do is take them to Hydra Island... where Smokey's going... where the plane is.

*sigh*

Don't you think Jacob should have briefed him on all this at some point?

3) Why is Desmond so important?

Let's go back in time for a moment. Daniel, traveling through time himself, arrives at the Swan sometime between 2001 and 2004. Desmond leaps out of the Swan in his biohazard suit and holds him at gunpoint. Daniel says to him:

What is important, Desmond, is what I'm about to say to you. I need you to listen. You're the only person who can help us because, Desmond... the rules... the rules don't apply to you. You're special. You're uniquely and miraculously special.

He was, at that time, obviously referring to Desmond's time travel abilities. But I think there's something more to that. Widmore brought Desmond along for a very specific purpose. Could it be time travel? Could Charles want Desmond to try and change the past - prevent Jack's phone call or prevent the Incident altogether? Possibly?

But what if Desmond has some mysterious rapport with the electromagnetism on the Island? Remember that Isaac of Uluru told Rose some people are specifically attuned to energies in the Earth. Maybe Widmore plans to use Desmond as a dowsing rod to try and find the final pocket of energy on the Island. This could also explain how Desmond's boat ended up on the Island in the first place - maybe he was drawn there by the electromagnetism.

4) What did Widmore mean by "the world would simply cease to be?"

We've gotten so many vague references and metaphors to what would happen if Smokey would escape: "we all go to Hell," "we all die," and now "the world would simply cease to be." All of these still reasonably fit in with my hypothesis from last week, but I'd really like to see some concrete consequences (in the Alt). Obviously since there is an Alt, the world hasn't completely disappeared

BTW, did anyone else get a bit creeped out when Sayid told Smokey he "didn't feel anything" and Smokey responded "Good. It'll help you get through what's coming." I imagine if one was literally going to Hell, it would probably be kinda nice not to actually feel anything.

5) Is Smokey wrong about Kate?

Smokey's certainly convinced that Kate's not a candidate, but I'm still not so sure since her name clearly wasn't crossed off the lighthouse list. If Smokey is indeed wrong about Kate being a candidate, wouldn't it be amusing to see him turn her over to Infected Claire only to have to later save her after he realizes he can't leave the Island without her?

Yeah, yeah. It probably wouldn't be as amusing as whatever Claire's got planned for her...

Tidbits:

- So ladies, was Jin Beefcake > Sayid or Sawyer Beefcake?

- I loved the quiet, subtle Smokey noise in the background as Locke returned to camp and found everyone unconscious.

- Note to ABC: The big, red "V" in the corner was really, really annoying and does not make me want to watch the show (though I did anyway because the remote was too far away and I had typing to do). My thoughts: Monica Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell are very easy on the eyes. Everything else was "meh."

Actually, scratch that. The ending was good. And by good, I mean humorous, campy sci-fi schlock. Y'know, like the original "V"...

- So the Tina Fey clone is a Geophysicist? Who would have thunk it?

- Lots of good quips this episode:

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease I'm not sure Hurley can track anything." - Looks like Miles has taken the king of the one-liners title from Sawyer.

Ben: "Why do you think I'm lying?" Illana: "Because you're speaking." Ha!

"Whatever happens, happens." - Not only is this a nice play on a previous episode title, I loved Claire's look and head nod afterwards. It was totally like, okay, I like this plan. Kate's brain will taste goooooood. Her heart will taste gooooooood.

"That's one stubborn tomato." - Thought this was a very touching exchange, though I imagine next episode Jack's going to start feeling a strange compulsion to wear all white. ;)

- So the purpose of the watch and the money in the Alt universe was as a payment to Keamy for killing Jin because he was banging Sun. Did Paik plan to have Jin killed in the regular universe too? On one hand, Jin and Sun are actually married in the normal timeline. On the other hand, Paik did send a henchman to threaten Jin at the Sydney airport before Flight 815 took off. Would Paik have killed Jin if he ran away with Sun?

Summary:

A solid episode that certainly moved things along, tied together a few lingering Alt subplots and gave us a very solid cliffhanger leading into next week, brutha! 4/5. So what do you think? Will we have a Desmond or Charles episode next week. I'd be totally happy with either.