He Who Is Called Jacob

In The Incident, Parts 1 & 2, we finally met the mysterious man previously only glimpsed. And what a surprise that he’s a blond weaver who makes his own threads. But as the episode ended and as I thought about the events that occurred, I have come to see that he is not just a weaver of cloth, but a weaver of…well, events perhaps? Lives? I was also struck with how benign and gentle a being he actually seems to be, one who believes in free will and progress. Throughout the seasons we have noticed how manipulative those in leadership can be, best epitomized in Ben, who remains dejected and depressed now that he is no longer on top. But perhaps Jacob is not as straightforward as I perceive, if he indeed manipulated Ben into killing him.

One pleasant surprise for me was the presence of Jacob in the lives of the surviving Oceanic 815 castaways (or as Rose said, “you people”). These people have been marked, some for decades, by the touch of Jacob. And they were touched, all of them, some only briefly. And all of them at a pivotal point in their lives (more or less).

First, the young Kate enters a convenience store with her toy airplane-toting childhood sweetheart, with the intent to steal a “New Kids on the Block” lunchbox. (Are there any readers who sympathized with Kate’s choice?). The clerk catches them, and threatens to call their parents, but a stranger approaches, pays for the box, and gives it to Kate (the box will be seen again in Season 1’s Born to Run). Touching that pert little nose, he makes Kate promise to never steal again. (That clearly didn’t take).

Jacob met James Ford the day the boy’s parents were buried. Jimmy is on the church steps, trying to write a letter to the con-man whose scheme eventually led to the murder/suicide, when his pen runs out of ink. Jacob gives Jimmy a pen (grazing the boy’s hand), saying how sorry he is about his parents. Although Jimmy promises his uncle he’ll not finish the letter, we know he breaks the promise. (As a total aside, the Ford family was living in Jasper, Alabama, just before their deaths. I had occasion to live in Jasper, and I can tell you that none of the churches looked like the one we saw. I’m just saying.)

The next flashback, as I mentioned previously, was the most heartbreaking of all. Sayid and Nadia were discussing how to celebrate their first anniversary. Silly woman can’t find her sunglasses. They are crossing the street when Jacob, briefly touching Sayid on the shoulder, asks for directions. Ever polite, Sayid tries to help. Nadia continues walking across the intersection, digging around for her sunglasses. When she finds them, still unaware of her surroundings, she turns around triumphantly to show them to Sayid. Sayid then watched in horror as Nadia gets struck by the car. Did Jacob save Sayid from death or distract Sayid so that Nadia would be killed?

Locke is not left out. The day that Locke is pushed out the window by his father to plummet eight stories down, Jacob is reading a book, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, apparently waiting for the fall. When it comes, Jacob rushes over to an apparently dead John, but upon Jacob’s touch, John gasps and opens his eyes, confused and in pain. Was John dead? Did Jacob save John’s life? Was the resurrection of John not in 2007 but in 2000? Jacob tells John, “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be alright.” Really, Jacob? Because I’m not so sure.

We finally get to see Sun and Jin in the same scene, but sadly it was only in flashback. Sun and Jin exchange wedding vows in front of their family and friends. Jacob walks through the receiving line afterward, touching both on the arms, and in excellent Korean (just ask Jin), tells them to cherish their time together.

Jack is having a bad hair day when he accidentally cuts the dural sac on a young girl while operating on her. He starts panicking, but his father tells him to count to five. Jack is angry, feeling embarrassed, since he believes the whole hospital thinks the only reason Jack got the internship was because of his father. Christian points out that the only one who doesn’t believe in Jack is Jack. At that point, Jacob calls out to Jack, “Is one of these yours?” rescuing Jack’s Apollo bar from the candy machine that hadn’t dispensed it.

Finally, the most touching scene. Hurley is distraught to be let out of prison, telling the officer that he killed three men, and, when that didn’t work, that men with tranquilizer guns were after him. However, the officer could not care less, and made Hurley leave the safety of the jail. There’s a cab waiting, with Jacob, of course, and what appears to be a guitar case. They ride together. And unlike every other time he was with an Oceanic castaway, he revealed something of himself, asking Hugo by name why he won’t return to the island. Jacob also tells Hurley that he’s not cursed and not crazy, but blessed to see those he loved who have died. He then tells Hugo about the Ajira flight, saying it is Hurley’s choice whether to go. Oh, and the guitar case wasn’t Jacob’s. (Is the guitar Charlie’s?)

We also saw Jacob with an Ajira castaway, Ilana. I got the impression that Ilana and Jacob were acquainted. After apologizing for not coming sooner, Jacob tells her that he needs her help, which she offers to give without hesitation. However, there was no touching in this scene.

As far as we know, Jacob never visited Juliet.

But the episode started out with a mystery, and it ended with a mystery. First the spinning and the weaving. Then the gutting of what appears to be a goldfish (are they even edible?) and its cooking. And the observation of a ship in the distance. If that ship isn’t the Black Rock, then I’m just going to be downright disappointed. (The Black Rock was lost at sea in 1845.)

Jacob is joined on the beach by a man who is never named, but for ease, I’m going to call him Esau. Dressed in black with salt-and-pepper hair, he looks on the ship with no pleasure, accusing Jacob of bringing the ship to the island. And it always ends the same when people come to the island, in corruption and destruction. Jacob looks at it differently, noting that the ending is all the same (which doesn’t sound so benign, now does it?) and everything that happens before it is progress.

Esau then turns to Jacob, saying, “Do you have any idea how much I want to kill you? I’m going to find a loophole, my friend.”

A number of things struck me while watching this scene. First, the much-discussed battle is not between Widmore and Ben, but between Jacob and Esau. And although Jacob clearly seems to be the good guy, we still have no idea who else is. Can we be confident that Richard is? Ilana and Bram? Or is Frank right to doubt their constant protestations that they’re the good guys (Ben kept telling Michael that – remember how that turned out?). Furthermore, we know little to nothing about the combatants. How long had they been on the island? Clearly they’re not immortal, since they apparently can be killed, so what are they? Why does Esau want to kill Jacob?

The second thing that struck me is that Widmore and Ben, among oh, so many others, are pawns in this game. Perhaps all the characters are. Jacob dangles choice before his pawns, whereas Esau apparently scares his to compliance with visions of their dead daughters.

I don’t know when it hit me that Ilana and Bram were carrying a dead body, and that the dead body had to be John’s, but I think it was around the time that Ilana showed up at the foot of the statue to talk Latin with Richard. As Locke’s body poured unceremoniously out of the box, the only conclusion was that Esau had somehow become John Locke. No wonder Richard had noticed something different about him. Locke wasn’t Locke, he was Not-Locke. He looked like Locke, he seemed to have Locke’s memories and habits, but he was Not-Locke.

We learned a little more about Jacob as Not-Locke made Richard lead the Others to Jacob. Ben never met Jacob. Instead, despite years of faithful service, all he got were notes, lists, cancer, and a dead daughter. Did any of the “leaders” meet Jacob? Or was Richard the only Other to have communication with him? Jacob was believed to have magical powers, in that he keeps Richard from aging and was believed to have resurrected John. Of course, if John was resurrected, it wasn’t in 2007 but in 2000, since it was Not-Locke that walked to Jacob in 2007.

In Jacob’s final scene, he did not seem surprised that Not-Locke and Ben came to him. Instead, he calmly looked at his ancient enemy, observing that he had finally found his loophole. He then turns to Ben, telling him he doesn’t have to do what Not-Locke told him to do; he has a choice. Ben explodes, and all his bitterness and disappointment about not being as special as Locke (he seems to not get that he’s with Not-Locke), ending with, “What about me?” Jacob coldly answers, “What about you?”

Now, it seems to me, if you’re dealing with a clearly disturbed man, who is spilling his guts about wanting to be important to you, you should at the very least pretend that he has been important to you all along. The neglect the person perceived was all because you knew he didn’t need you like the others did. This seems rational. (And didn’t Richard save Ben at Jacob’s orders? Why did he do that?)

But Jacob instead was dismissive and disdainful. Jacob had to have known what would happen next. For then Ben stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, with the same fervor with which he killed Keamy in the last Lost finale.

Jacob’s final words, before Not-Locke kicked him into the fire, was, “They’re coming.” And he seemingly was no more.

So, what’s the loophole? What are these rules? Are these the same rules that Ben referred to last year when he accused Widmore of breaking them? What kind of powers do these two “men” have? Why did Jacob touch all the Oceanic castaways?

June (hi June!) has some interesting theories about the touching. One is related to Harry Potter (which I’ve never read), and is the theory I like more. That theory says that Jacob touched each of the castaways, leaving a little of himself in each so that when they returned (a little hazy on that part) they could revive him. The other theory is that Jacob touched them so that when they returned to their lives on the plane, as Jack planned, their memories of all that transpired was intact. Thus, they could all return to the island of their own free will, as opposed to the result of Ben’s manipulations.

I also have questions about the allegiances of the smoke monster. Did the smoke monster not know that Locke was actually Not-Locke when it materialized into Alex and threatened Ben with destruction if he harmed Locke? How could the smoke monster know that Ben planned to kill Locke/Not-Locke, but not know that Locke was actually Not-Locke? Jane suggested (Hi Jane!) that the smoke monster might actually be Esau. Jane also noted that if Esau is a shapeshifter, perhaps it is he that kept showing up to the castaways – Mr. Eko’s brother, Kate’s horse. Perhaps Esau is also Christian?

And at last, why I chose the name “Esau” for Jacob’s nemesis. For that tale, we must turn to Genesis, which tells how Isaac and his Aramaean wife Rebekah had twin sons. She had a tough pregnancy because the children struggled inside her. She complained, but Yahweh told her that she had two nations in her womb that would be rivals, and that the elder would serve the younger.

First born was Esau, red and hairy, and Jacob, grasping his brother’s heel, was born next. Isaac preferred Esau, the hunter, while Rebekah preferred Jacob, a quiet man who stayed among the tents.

One day, when Esau had come home after a long day, he asked his brother for some of the soup Jacob had made. Jacob would not give him any until Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. Esau, as first born, was his father’s heir. Esau was so hungry that he sold his birthright to Jacob.

As Isaac lay ill, blind and ailing, he called Esau to him, and asked him to hunt game and make him a savory dish. Once Isaac ate, he would give Esau his blessing. Rebekah overheard and desired Isaac to give his blessing to Jacob. She called Jacob to her and sent him to the flocks to kill a pair of kid lambs so she could prepare the dish. She then dressed Jacob in Esau’s best clothes, and wrapped his arms in the skin of the kids so he would feel hairy. Jacob took the dish to his father. His father expressed surprise at how quickly Esau caught the game, and observed that Esau had Jacob’s voice. However, he felt the arms, and knowing Esau to be hairy, he gave Jacob Esau’s blessing. Esau returned just as Isaac finished. The only blessing that Isaac could give his favorite son was to serve Jacob. Esau hated Jacob for stealing his birthright and his blessing. Fearing for his safety, Rebekah sent Jacob to her brother, Laban.

Jacob spent many years with Laban, marrying both his daughters, and having many sons. However, Laban’s sons became jealous of Jacob’s prosperity, and Jacob had to return to his father’s land. He heard that his brother Esau was coming to greet him with over 400 men. He was terrified, but prepared to meet him in kind. However, Esau had forgotten their past differences, and the two brothers hugged and were like family. Esau left and settled the land of Edom, and Jacob settled the lands of his father. His last son, named Benjamin, was born there.

This is an exceedingly long post, and I am up later than I planned. And sadly, there is still so much unaddressed from the finale. I also want to acknowledge all the wonderful comments and suggestions that y'all have been sending my way, both in person and via e-mail. I've tried to credit you when I used or stole your theories. If I didn't, let me know. Also, let me know what you thought. I feel like I left so much about Jacob untouched.

Quick Thoughts on The Incident

There is no way that I can create a coherent post tonight. Last night, my body was so tense and my thoughts ran so rapidly that I could not sleep. Did this happen to you too? All the myriad possibilities and implications of what we saw last night have bounced around in my head, in a convoluted mass of ideas. Two hours of Lost is a lot to digest. So, tonight, I thought I would address a few issues.


Juliet

A lot of you have been very kind in providing me support in regards to Juliet’s fate. I had heard that Juliet might die, and that the woman who portrays her, Elizabeth Mitchell, has been cast in the pilot of the remake of “V”. And last week, Juliet was wearing a red shirt. Clearly, Juliet was marked.

I felt there was more foreshadowing of what was to come in the finale, in the way she looked back wistfully at the submarine leaving without her, how she waited a while to talk with Bernard and Rose (found at last!). But most disturbing of all, Jacob did not appear in Juliet’s flashback. So I was already primed watching the electromagnetic anomaly activated and all metal objects rushed to the well. How did that chain wrap itself around Juliet’s waist anyway? What brought the lump to my throat was Sawyer, telling Juliet that she can’t leave him, and Kate, urgently trying to unwrap that chain. Sawyer’s face was unrecognizable in grief, fear, and desperation. Even now, I’m choked up. And, as she slipped away, plummeting, presumably to her death, my husband looks at me and says, “Oh, well.” Thoughts of divorce court did fly briefly through my head.

Many of y’all have already pointed out to me that Juliet is probably not dead. Instead, she made the bomb explode through her sheer strength and determination, and returned to be the falsely imprisoned obstetrician, still in Ben’s thrall and still Goodwin’s lover. She got what she wanted – she never loved Sawyer and never lost him. At least, that’s the implication. But I don’t know that this is as simple as that. My friends Amber L. and Brian (hi Amber L & Brian!) both noticed that Juliet’s childhood home and parents looked downright modern, and not at all like what you would expect of the 1970s. I totally didn’t get that, but wouldn’t that makes things totally different? Instead of going back, Juliet and her family went forward.

Hurley

Hurley never fails to save the day when he’s behind the wheel of a VW wagon. Go Hurley!

Sayid

Jacob’s scene with Sayid and Nadia broke my heart. My friend June (hi June!) thought that Jacob might actually have saved Sayid’s life. I didn’t see it that way – I felt like Jacob’s interference actually increased Nadia’s vulnerability to Widmore’s goon (and I do believe now that it was Widmore who had her killed). June might be more right on this than me.

Even on TV, a shot to the gut is usually fatal. Sayid sure survived a long time, despite his intermittent medical treatment and the wild ride in the VW wagon. But he appears to believe that he’s gone too, even saying that “Nothing can save me”, though I’m not sure he’s necessarily just talking about his corporeal self.

Miles & Pierre Chang

The only time we’ve ever seen Miles care about another human being.

Phil

Bye-bye. I'm not ashamed to admit that I clapped.

Richard Alpert

I just read this on another site – if Jacob is responsible for Richard’s everlasting youth, does this mean he’s ashes?

And that’s about all I got in me tonight. I promise that there will be much more to come, starting tomorrow night. We got a lot of ground to cover, and I suspect that one more post will not be adequate to address this.

We also have to talk about the next seven long months of Lost-lessness, and the blog. I just don’t foresee having no entries all that time! I’ve a few ideas to share with you, and hope to hear your thoughts too.

In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts. Help me get coherent!

A Primer on the Incident

Can you believe that the season finale of Lost has come? It seems like we just started watching.

The last 2 episodes will be aired on Wednesday, May 13. The title of the episodes: The Incident. So, I thought it time to post a primer on the subject of the Incident, of which we’ve learned little.

The Incident was first mentioned by Pierre Chang as Marvin Candle in the Swan Orientation film, hopefully posted below, which was first seen in edited fashion by Jack and John Locke in Orientation. Desmond had hidden it behind a copy of The Turn of the Screw. Mr. Eko revealed the missing part of the film in What Kate Did, having found it in a Bible at the Arrow station. Kelman told Desmond that Radzinsky had edited the film, though we don’t know why he did so.

The film introduces the founders of the Dharma Initiative, the DeGroots, Ph.D students at the University of Michigan, and their sponsor, Alvar Hanso, a Danish industrialist. According to the film, the Swan was originally designed as a laboratory to study the unique electromagnetic fluctuations at this part of the island. However, an incident recalled the establishment of a protocol, one we observed numerous times in Season 2.

Please note that Marvin Candle has a prosthetic arm.

And that’s it. It was never mentioned again, until Daniel Faraday returned to the Island in 1977 in an apparent attempt to prevent the occurrence of the Incident. I hope that we learn how Daniel learned of the Incident, but I’m not holding my breath.

It also occurs to me that Radzinsky and Kelman worked together in the Swan station for years, until Radzinsky finally kills himself, long after the Incident. I guess that means he'll survive this week's episode. Damn.

In the meantime, wait patiently for Wednesday, and Namaste.

Follow the Leader

The Big Set Up

Looking back on this episode, I realized that, as much as I enjoyed many moments, the sum of the episode was not greater than its parts. Perhaps because the episode needed to get everyone and everything in place for next week’s finale, we had no flashback or flashforward, and no character took center stage. The only common unifying theme was Richard (I almost thought the episode would be Richard-centric), the advisor and guide who never ages. Because of this, let’s just look at things a little more piecemeal than I usually do. Let’s start with events in 1977.


Jack and Kate

I didn’t know whether to cheer Kate or roll my eyes at her while she and Jack argued about what to do. Kate is clearly horrified to learn that Jack plans on doing what Daniel suggested, and finds the thought of exploding a hydrogen bomb to be madness and homicidal. She’s also disappointed to learn that Jack views the previous three years as miserable, and that her relationship with him doesn’t seem to matter much. Granted, if everything does work out as Jack says, and they return to their lives as they would have been had the plane never crashed, Kate would most likely be sitting in jail or prison. Would she prefer to avoid prison than let all those people who died actually live? (That question makes my head spin.) Or does she really believe that exploding the bomb will only kill them all, including the Dharma Initiative folk and the Hostiles? All for nothing?

I didn’t know whether to cheer Jack or roll my eyes at him while he and Kate argued about what to do. Jack has embraced what he feels is his destiny, and it is to return to the life he would have had. Everything that was done could be undone. Everyone who died could live again. The man of science now finds himself the man of faith, who believes in the words of a mad dead scientist, and plans to detonate a hydrogen bomb. If it doesn’t work, everyone dies. Neither Kate’s arguments nor Sayid’s pointed questions sway Jack from his purpose.

But the most important event that occurred between the two of them is that, for the first time on the island, Kate was not with Jack. In The Little Prince, Kate told Jack, “I have always been with you.” No longer. I suspect this rift is one that cannot be healed.

Sayid

Has he been in the jungle just watching this whole time? And how bad is Hostile security that first, Daniel was able to walk into their camp relatively unmolested, second Kate and Jack hid in the bushes outside the camp’s perimeter, and third Sayid hid in the jungle from them?

Sayid did not seem particularly shocked or even mildly disappointed that Kate and Sawyer saved Ben. He agrees to follow Jack on his quest, because either way, Sayid will be out of his misery.

Eloise

One thing was clear in this episode: Eloise is in charge, and Charles Widmore is her lover, albeit an opinionated one. And she was just as hard in her 40s as she was in her 70s, spending hardly any time grieving over her son, or marveling over how she first met him over 20 years prior. She quickly gets Jack to talk, and just as quickly agrees to his plan of detonating the bomb Faraday had her bury. Sayid was right to question her motives. And why does she think that setting off a hydrogen bomb will solve her problems? Has no one heard of radiation sickness?

Some eagle-eyed web-people noted that Widmore touched Eloise’s belly during their talk, and heard him express concern about this mission “in her condition”. Is she currently pregnant with Daniel? Did she kill her son as he was gestating in her womb? Does that last sentence even make sense?

Other web-people have speculated the Eloise learns about time travel through Daniel’s notebook. How eerie must it be to recognize your own handwriting in a stranger’s journal? I am certain that the journal must have provided her with much assistance through the years. It must have existed twice once she gave Daniel the blank copy. At that time, until his death, there would be his copy, which he wrote in, and her copy, a cruel memento of the sacrifice she and her son made.

Sawyer and Juliet

I heart Sawyer and Juliet. The best scenes in this episode centered around these two, and I confess to being a little teary-eyed a couple of times. Sawyer refused to speak, other than his quirky one-liners (“Call my lawyer”), until they started hurting Juliet. Juliet wanted to talk sooner, but Sawyer reminded her no one would believe them. Juliet reminded them that they’ve known each other for three years: “We are not bad people. We are not here to hurt you.” But they found a compromise, put us on the submarine, we’ll tell you everything. I wonder if there was more to it than a map to the Hostiles?

Did anyone else’s mind flash back to Back to the Future when Sawyer said that they’d buy Microsoft and bet on some football game? Once on the submarine, they reminded each other that not only did they have each other’s backs, but they loved each other too.

And then Kate joined them and totally ruined the mood. Poor Juliet. (Yes, I feel more for Juliet than the other two, though I know that Sawyer is probably suffering over the situation at least as much as she is. But I just feel for her.)

Radzinsky

I still can’t stand this guy. He overthrew a weak Horace to take over, and refused to listen to Chang’s warning of cataclysm. He almost seemed to enjoy hitting Sawyer (though he seemed shocked when Phil hit Juliet). Radzinsky clearly has a goal, unknown to us, and will let nothing and no one stop him. I hope he dies in the Incident.

Phil

Phil is not nearly as stupid as Sawyer thought (see He’s Our You). The best way to hurt Sawyer wasn’t to hurt Sawyer physically, but to make Sawyer watch Juliet be hit. He also figured out that Hugo Reyes was “the fat guy”. Clever. I hope he dies too.

Horace

We know that Horace won’t die in the Incident, because we saw him die in the Purge, 11 years later. This episode showed how ineffectual a leader Horace is.

The Submarine

Was that the worst special effect ever?

Miles, Hurley, Jin, and Pierre Chang

Next to Sawyer and Juliet, these were my second favorite scenes. The “fat guy” is sent to gather food. As he’s trying to leave the Barracks surreptitiously, he’s observed by Chang, who follows him.

Chang’s interrogation of Hurley was hilarious. I really enjoyed Miles and Jin’s abashed expression as Hurley denied the existence of the Korean War. And, of all things that made him fold, it was being asked who was currently President of the United States, the very same question that Hurley worried about not being able to answer in Namaste. Oh, Hugo, you’re so smart emotionally.

Chang finally realized that Miles was indeed, his son, but their reunion was brief. Miles assured Chang that if Daniel said that something would happen, it would. Later, Miles watched as Chang forced his wife and son onto the sub, causing the end of the marriage. Which, frankly, seemed a little extreme for the circumstances. Did Chang not believe that the sub could come back?

I wonder if Jin will have more than a line next week.

Now to 2007.

Sun

Despite how cleverly she manipulated Ben, Sun apparently doesn’t know when she’s being manipulated by John. Her single-mindedness in finding her husband has made it terribly easy to get her to follow along with any plan. However, I was as dismayed as she was to hear that Richard saw Jack, Kate, and Hurley die.

Ben

Ben remains his bitter, scheming, manipulative self, and I have no idea if he’s actually working an angle at this time, or, so rare for him, just letting events flow past him. I enjoyed watching how uncharacteristically disconcerted he was by John. He ended up being us, asking John how? Why? But my favorite Ben moment was his response to John’s request to join him and Richard on their night mission:

Ben: What, John, don't you trust me here with my former people? Afraid I'll stage a coup?
John: I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore, Ben.
Ben (looking a little disappointed): Well, in that case, I'd love to come.

Richard

First, I must ask, who builds ships in bottles? What’s that about?

Richard was a busy man this episode, having pivotal roles in both time periods. Ben defines his role as an advisor, confirming what we’ve known for a long time. Richard’s not just an advisor, as he often questions orders, and occasionally does what he wants (see taking young Ben to the Temple). He seems a wry observer of the relationship between Eloise and Charles. He also seems quite unflappable at Locke’s initial return, that is, until present-John leads him to past-John. But even then, he goes with the flow, protesting at John’s deviations from the norms, but eventually agreeing to do as asked.

John

Other than Richard, this was John’s episode. How wonderful that in his first scene this episode he brought boar?

First, John leads Ben and Richard to the Nigerian plane (how odd that Ben didn’t know about it!), where Richard dug out John’s bullet and told him he was going to have to die. Of course, we saw this scene originally in Because You Left. Richard willingly tells past-John that he’ll have to die, but later remarks that at least that didn’t happen. At last, Richard learns that John Locke did, indeed, die and return to life.

John also reveals that not only is he the leader, but he sets the rules, despite tradition, precedent, or whatever. Thus, John seeks out Jacob, rather than vice versa, and John sets the time. Even more, John invites all the remaining Others to join him to meet Jacob, telling them that if Jacob’s going to issue orders, they all should know who he is. The Others and Sun are eager to go. Richard, instead, is worried. I'm starting to think John Locke is gonna be trouble. You think?

Because later Ben learns John’s real agenda. John is not interested in finding his group or reuniting Sun and Jin, he’s interested in killing Jacob. Ben’s not the only one who’s shocked.

Questions:

So, why did the Oceanic Six have to return to the Island again?

Do the Dharma Initiative women and children not return? Why did Chang’s behavior in getting his wife to leave cause her to leave? Where there any women at the Dharma Initiative during the Purge?

Why does John plan to kill Jacob? Does Jacob know? Does Christian know? Is that why John came back? Does Christian work for the Island or Jacob or both? Does Jacob work for the Island? Did the Island tell John to kill Jacob?

How did the bomb get into the tunnels? And did anyone notice the hieroglyphs? Did anyone else beside me think that they were in the Temple?

Did Ben really never see Jacob?

The scene where John and Ben watch Richard take care of injured past-John, and Jack’s plan to detonate the hydrogen bomb to undo the past three years, leads to lots of questions as well. But that would make my nose bleed, and who really has time for that?

Next week is the two hour season finale, called “The Incident.” We’ve heard of the Incident off and on over the years, and I’ll be sure to post a primer on the Incident between now and then.

In the meantime, I’d like to know what you thought.

The Variable

The Parent Trap

Does anyone on this show have a normal relationship with their parents? Okay, maybe not normal, but perhaps less than strained? Less than miserable? Relatively honest and open? Something?

In this episode, we got to see the relationship between Daniel and his mother, the elusive Ms. Hawking. We watched her basically crush Daniel’s interest in the piano, even though he promised to make time. She blatantly snubbed Theresa Spencer, Daniel’s girlfriend and research assistant. Why? Because of destiny. And because “The women in your life will only be terribly hurt.” What every son wants to hear from his mother, I’m sure.

We also watched, suspecting without confirmation until the end of the episode, Daniel’s relationship with his patron and father, Charles Widmore. It seems that they only met once, shortly after the “wreck” of Oceanic 815 was found. Because of the holes in Daniel’s memory, he felt no qualms letting his son in on the secret, Widmore planted the evidence (this would have been a bigger reveal had it not already been announced the week before in the retrospective on the Oceanic 6). Besides, Widmore wants to offer Daniel a job (won’t he forget that too?), a job that will also heal Daniel.

And then the jaws shut. Eloise visits her son, having heard about Widmore’s opportunity. Daniel doesn’t believe that he can actually do the job, but his mother also promises healing. Further, she’ll be proud of him if he goes. He then nods and agrees to go.

We know, of course, how Daniel ended up in 1977. He studied the time travel issue at length at Ann Arbor, and developed some theories (more on that in a later post). Then, somehow, he learned about the upcoming Incident. Perhaps he thought his mother sent him back to prevent the Incident. Perhaps he thought that he could manipulate the actors to achieve a new end result. He had a clear purpose on the island, and found Kate and Jack willing to help him. Still, he walked alone into the Hostile camp. He holds Richard at gunpoint, demanding to know where Eloise is. And she shoots him, with what looks to me a mortal wound. It then hits Daniel. “You knew. You always knew. You knew this was gonna happen. You sent me here anyway.”

Suddenly Eloise’s behavior through the episode made some sense. She clearly looked upset when she told Daniel he could no longer play piano. And there’s her note in the journal she gave him, "Daniel, No matter what, remember, I will always love you. Mother." But her behavior in talking with Daniel’s father, Charles Widmore, telling him, “Sacrifice? Don’t you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the Island, knowing full well that…” She didn’t finish her sentence, as Widmore protests, “He’s my son too.” He fully deserved the slap she gave him.

Why did Eloise and Widmore have to send Daniel back to the Island? What does she get out of it? I’m sure that there must be some reason, and I look forward to learning it. But at this point, it looks to me that Daniel was murdered, and not in 1977 when his mother shot him, but in 2004, when his parents encouraged Daniel to go to the Island, knowing what eventually awaited him. Daniel had no idea what he was facing, but they did.

You may be uncomfortable that I assume that Daniel is dead. I do. Nor am I alone. A lot of people on the web seem to take it for granted that Daniel met his death at his mother’s hands. I must believe this, because an injured son is not much of a sacrifice. He already considered his mother to be difficult, and I felt that there had been periods of estrangement between the two in the past (well, his past, 1977 Eloise’s future). I think that Eloise, in 2004, knowingly encouraged her son to go to the Island, with full understanding that in the past she unwittingly shot her son to death. And that is her sacrifice.

Other questions about this unholy family: When was Daniel conceived and born? No, we don’t know his date of birth. Was he born on the Island? Where did Hostiles go to give birth? Was young Daniel on the Island in 1977, just as baby Miles is? Will young Daniel see his own corpse? What were the circumstances of his conception?

Beyond this, how did adult Daniel learn that his mother was a Hostile? How did he learn so much about the Incident? What does he have written in his journal?

The episode offered a little more than just Daniel and his parents.

Desmond and Penny

Penny met Eloise Hawking while waiting for Desmond’s doctor. It is in Eloise’s conversation with Penny that we learn that, for the first time, Eloise has no idea what will happen. Could Eloise see into the future, like Desmond apparently once could? Or is all her knowledge of the future learned in 1977 or thereabouts. Perhaps she learned about the future from Daniel’s journal?

The scene where Desmond told Penny that he would never leave her might have had more resonance had we not just learned about the sexual harassment suit against Henry Ian Cusick.

Oddly enough, a lot of people were very upset that Penny left Charlie with a nurse while she saw Desmond. I didn’t even think about it. I just assumed children are not allowed in recovery rooms.

Pierre Chang

We got to relive the scene we saw in the first episode of the season, this time, from Daniel’s perspective. We learn that Daniel wants to prevent the Incident, which will happen in 6 hours if nothing is done to stop it. Chang doesn’t believe him, especially after Daniel tells him that he’s from the future. It doesn’t help that Miles refused to confirm that he was Chang’s grown son.

The Party’s Over

The scene in Sawyer and Juliet’s living room was cool, if only because we got to see so many of our characters together in one room. Phil has caught on to Sawyer’s deception, and Sawyer sees only two choices for the Lostaways: commandeer the submarine or hide in the jungle. No surprise that Jin wants to stay on the island, but I loved Hurley’s reason – it would seem kinda wishy-washy to leave so soon after arriving.

Daniel’s desire to find the Hostiles shows the cracks in this alliance. Sawyer finds himself alone in refusing to help “Twitchy”. It was this scene where Jack came back. And y’all know that I’ve been waiting for that for a long time. I’m not sure what exactly sparked it, but it was effective.

Sawyer’s plea to Kate “Come with us, Freckles,” clearly fractured his relationship with Juliet, who quickly gave Kate the code to the pylons. Juliet’s ostensible reason was “It’s over here for us anyway.” Which “us”, Juliet? You and Sawyer? That would make me incredibly sad. And rile up those of us who are anti this particular romantic quadrangle. You know who you are! The fracture in their romance was observable later when, after Sawyer asked if Juliet still had his back, she asked, “Do you have mine?”

Daniel and Charlotte

And at last, the girl Charlotte meets her crazy man.

The Gunfight

I knew I didn’t like Radzinsky. The scientist who clearly walks around armed was upset because Daniel was armed. That didn’t make much sense.

I got to tell ya, I rarely pay attentions to fights. Even on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my brain basically shuts off while the characters fight over whatever it is they are fighting over. I appreciate that the fights are often physical manifestations of inner psychological conflict, but I find them so boring. I paid no attention to it.

There’s clearly more to discuss about this episode, but it is late and what remains to be said will take much more contemplation than I have in me right now. As a precursor to how my thoughts are going, I found myself thinking about fate and free will. This theme was more present in this episode than in any other episode we’ve seen so far this season.

What did you think?