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.