WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE LATEST EPISODE OF LOST.
After the jump: Mini-recap, questions, theories, and predictions!
On this week’s Lost, in Sideways World, we get the impression that Dr. Benjamin Linus is a lonely guy who takes care of his elderly father (ROGER!!!) and despite being a smartypants, he is forced to neglect his precious History Club to cover detention because his boss, Principal Butthead, doesn’t like him very much. So Ben decides maybe HE should be principal instead! And it turns out that Alex is conveniently one of his students! And she is in this now defunct History Club! And she wants to go to Yale! And she tells Ben that Principal Butthead is having relations with the school nurse! Something that the always-manipulative-no-matter-the-dimension Ben uses to try and blackmail the guy out of his job! But when confronted with this blackmail, the principal says if Ben goes through with it, he’s not going to write Alex’s letter of recommendation to Yale! So of course, since this is the Sideways World, Alex > Ben’s own happiness, and she gets her recommendation and all’s well that ends well, except Ben is right back where he started.
On the island, Miles tells Ilana that Ben’s the one that killed Jacob, and it turns out that Ilana thought of Jacob as a father, so BIG SURPRISE there are more daddy issues! So then she ties Ben up, tells him to dig his own grave, and is ready to shoot him! But then Smokey shows up and tells Ben that he’s about to roll, but he’ll let Ben have the island if he can beat Ilana to some tree somewhere! So Ben bolts in a comedic fashion, and he gets there first with Ilana at his heels, and the two of them have a heart to heart in which Ben basically tells her how shitty his whole life has been, and how it’s all Jacob’s fault, etc etc and Ilana forgives him and they go and have a nice little musical montage with the rest of the Losties. We also found out that Richard can’t kill himself (thanks to Jacob) and he tried to get Jack to kill him as a favor! But when Jack lit the TNT’s fuse, nothing happened! Because he’s all special and stuff. Which he knows thanks to that whole Lighthouse fiasco. Then he cried and breathed heavily through his nose.
Questions:
1. Richard said that once Jacob touches you, you can’t kill yourself. So now we know why Michael and Locke had such a hard time of it! But Richard also implied that he hasn’t AGED because Jacob touched him as well – does this mean the 6 Candidates are also not going to age? But Sawyer and Kate were touched as kids, so they’ve obviously aged – maybe Jacob gives each person a different “gift?”
2. Who else thinks Widmore is going to join Team Smokey??
3. In the Sideways World, Roger told us that they had gone to the island! What was that all about!??!!? How long did they stay, and why did they leave?
4. Who ever thought that Jack would really become the ultimate Man of Faith and attempt to blow himself up? (Although if Jacob’s touch means they can’t kill themselves, that fuse went out because technically Jack was trying to kill himself, right?) And of course we got some Jears. ;_;
5. Ilana said Jacob was the closest thing to a father she had – more daddy issues! I only wish I was surprised! What was her relationship to him?? Was it a big shock that she actually forgave Ben for killing Jacob?
6. Now that we’ve seen the kind of havoc Jacob has caused in people’s lives, can we really think of him as a “good” guy? Isn’t it interesting that for a show that’s always had this strong theme of black and white that now that we’re finally getting to the ultimate battle royale that both sides are a little…gray? Jacob’s more evil than we figured and Smokey has some really good points!
Of course at this point it’s pretty clear that Jacob is a God figure and Smokey is the Satan figure – Smokey being held prisoner by Jacob’s wrath and all that. Jacob setting people down a path and Smokey tempting them with the fru-its of the dev-eel and whatnot. If we weren’t so close to the end of the series I’d be theorizing the hell (no pun intended) out of all of this, but at this point I’m happy to just let it roll. I think I’ll wait until it’s all over and done before I write my gigantic “This Is What Lost Means” thesis.
7. Last season when Ben was revived in the temple, Richard said he’d never be the same again, he’d be “changed.” Is the selflessness we saw in Sideways Ben (with Alex and his father) what little Ben lost in that temple?
8. Ilana said there were six candidates left. According to the cave, the 6 names listed were Jarrah, Shephard, Ford, Kwon, Reyes, and Locke. Does this mean that both Sun AND Jin are candidates? And even if you count them separately (and discount Sayid) that still only leaves you with five, right?
9. Smokey asked Ben to take over, and yet he’s the one who said the island doesn’t need protecting. What’s up with that?
Thoughts:
– Alex!!! So good to see her! Who knew she’d be so nerdy?
– And Arzt, hating everyone and everything! As per usual!
– Was that the Black Rock in the History text book Ben was helping Alex study with?
– I loved the thing about Nikki and Paulo and Miles with the diamonds. Awesome.
– Every episode should end with Hurley Hugs and musical montages. Just saying.
Such a great episode. So many funny lines. Cyborg? Vampire? Sweater vest? Banana leaf checks? LOL!
(For the record I want to see Vampire!Richard show up on True Blood this year. Guh.)
I’m sure I’ll be adding more tomorrow once I’ve read all your very astute comments :D
According to the Enhanced Version text the Sideways Flash is, “What happened if flight 815 never crashed on the island,” and as we saw, the island is underwater in that scenario. So I think they are saying that since the Losties never were on the island the original “incident” Dr. Candlewax refers to happened.
And according the depictions in the show, it looked as if Radzinsky was about to puncture the energy pocket with the drill and insodoing must’ve set off something crazy that sunk the island. (when Locke turned the wheel the O6 saw the island sink and obviously it reappears somewhere else in time.) So the incident must’ve been so drastic the island was unable to re-emerge in time.
And perhaps that’s what Jacob meant when he said it only ends once.
@John, Good points as Jacob and MIB seem to have very different views of what Human Nature is. It would also be interesting to know what the RULES of these two demi-gods or the island are. Why can Jacob leave the Island but MIB appears to be stuck here with the execption of whatever LOOPHOLE MIB seems to have found to let him leave. Also Ben might have had to kill Jacob to understand what losing faith truly means in order to believe again that there might be a method to Jacobs Blind Faith madness (similar to Richard’s loss in faith, wanting to die and Jack giving him a refresher course in Blind Faith trusting in the Unknown).
@Lauren/Jacobita, Ummm Widmore…not sute it’s a given he is team Smokey. But interesting thought that he could be coming from Sideways World. Does anyone know what the time difference between current onisland (2007?) time and Current AU Sideways time? Is Widmore the One Jacob was referring to when he said someone is coming? And if so, does that mean Widmore is a Jacob follower?
Finally, Jacobita, you mean with only 9 episodes to go everyone isn’t randomly sitting at their desks thinking about how Lost theories? LOL!!!
ACK probably has it right we would do better to just let the season roll…or drive ourselves crazy with yet more off-based brain teasing, time traveling, alternate realities theories.
And yet as this series closes down…it’s still kind of fun thinking about…How does this end :-)
You see why I am Lost N Lost?
It’s great to have experienced all the theories and thoughts about what this show is all about. In the future, no one will be able to experience it like we have.
I just found out via imdb that Nestor Carbonell’s middle name is “Gaston”.
All of which makes the character of Richard Alpert even more delish.
And certain to be a vampire.
105
8. Ilana said there were six candidates left. According to the cave, the 6 names listed were Jarrah, Shephard, Ford, Kwon, Reyes, and Locke. Does this mean that both Sun AND Jin are candidates? And even if you count them separately (and discount Sayid) that still only leaves you with five, right?
I think I overheard at one point this season that Richard was a candidate. So would that make him No. 6, and not necessarily both of the Kwon’s?
John- I completely agree with you. Once you knew Bruce Willis was the dead guy, it’s not quite the same. I’m just going to ride the last episodes on the flood of Jears.
I think Kate is a candidate, I believe the name “Austin- #51” was written in the lighthouse, so she could be a candidate too. Locke’s truly dead, so he can’t be counted.
Also, what if the flash sideways is the time line that really matters, and all that’s going on on the island is just to affect the subconcious of the characters in the flash-sideways. Perhaps something catastrophic happens to the world, and Jacob is trying to get the people who can prevent it to do something different than they would have before the island’s experiences influence their true nature. We’ve already seen that the people in the flash-sideways are being effected by stuff that happened on the island, but not in their timeline – Jack thinking he knew Desmond on the plane, Jack not remembering his appendix being taken out, Kate going back for Claire. Just an idea.
Maybe the entire show is an explantion for deja vu. : )
*explanation
But I hope not, it would be disappointing.
I think that energy/thoughts/experiences are being passed from one timeline to the other…
When we saw Lockdown, Smocke in the jungle yelled “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!!”… a lot of people, myself included, thought that there was somehow a piece of Locke’s spirit/or something in Smocke and it kinda came out at that moment… After a couple of more episodes, and a more refined theory on the whole energy being passed through both timelines… I’m inclined to believe, that sideways Locke is the real Locke, because it doesn’t seem likely to me that Smocke would want to be in anyone’s body and live their life: he seems to want a shot at freedom, and that doesn’t agree with living someone else’s life… do you see that posibility?? Especially posible if the sideways is a byproduct of Smocke’s wish-granting and it is some sort of “time reset” that takes ‘everyone’ to a time without either Jacob’s influence or the island’s influence or whoever’s influence.
So, question: what if it’s not just one way or the other? what if the energy is not exclusively being passed through from one timeline to the other, but that both share that energy and pass it to each other?? To me that would explain that Locke-line yelled in the same intonation by Smocke (sideways energy going to island), and it would explain Locke’s attitude, being all positive and giggy and the suggestion to go after the principal (island energy into sideways – where Smocke is all positive and happy he’s leaving the island, and suggest the same job position to Ben)…
So, here are my theories as answers to ur questions.
1. I do believe that each candidate touched by Jacob has a “gift”. Hopefully Jack’s gift is not the Jears force…
2. I think Widmore’ll join the good team because a) Smokey’s team has already TOO much power with Sayid and Sawyer etc, and b) because it would be interesting to see him and Ben, sorry, Dr Linus, trying to cooperate… Ol’ Charles cares about the island doesn’t he?
3. That I’ll just wait to find more about. I can’t imagine why Roger would eave the island and how come he treats Ben so nice. He used to hate him!
4. No coment.. I had my fingers crossed, but that f___ing idiot didn’t blow up. Well, at least Richard’s still alive…
5. There must be more about Illana and Jacob’s relationship than we think. It all seems a bit… I don’t know, suspicious????
6. In my opinion Jacob, just like Ben, is a good man but with issues. He messed it up, but I believe he had good intentions. Smokey, on the other side, is pitch black, dark and pure evil…
7. I guess so. It makes sense. But his manipulative ways are still there hidden… A tiger doesnt change its stripes, right?
8. Here you’re wrong. Illana knows Locke’s dead and when she says “6 candidates left” she means “6 candidates still alive”. Besides, Locke’s name was crossed out by Mocke. The 6th candidate, assuming Kwon refers to one of the Kwons, is Lapidus. It’s been said that he’s also a candidate, if my memory doesn’t fail me. An outsider, as far as candidates go, but still in the run for becoming The Island’s Next Top Leader…
9. That’s cunning Smokey trying to manipulate poor Ben… Thank God Dr Linus is stil on the good side!
Paolo and Nikki line was quite possibly the best thing Miles has ever said! Kudos to Kitsis and Horowitz for finally bringing it full circle – what a beautiful shout out to those of us who are sticking it out! Thank you! Holla!
Old Uncle Rico on an oxygen tank is funny… Hee hee hee…
Just went to Lostpedia to help me guess who the 6th Candidate could be.
They have a great list of all the candidates shown in both the cave and lighthouse with Crossed and Uncrossed off names/numbers.
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Candidates
Apparently the candidates and their #’s are:
1) Reyes-#8 (Hugo)
2) Ford-#15 (Sawyer)
3) Jarrah-#16 (Sayid)
4) Shepard-#23 (Jack)
5) Kwon-#42 (Jin)
6) Austen-#51 (Kate)
This list appears to be the early Favorites. Carlton Cruse apparently said Kate’s name was suppose to be on the wall in the Cave but because of production oversight it was not shown (though they did show it in the lighthouse).
My pick for Jin as the Kwon, is because that is Jin’s birth last name as Sun Married into this last name (weak distinction though).
Now the fun speculation starts if Sayid (Jarrah) has truly gone to the darkside and is no longer a Candidate. The same goes for Ford (Sawyer) if he indeed has decided to follow Unlocke and because of that choice is also no longer a candidate.
That would leave 4 candidates left (Reyes,Shepard,Kwon & Austen) that are both in the cave’s list and on the light house.
So who are the other two remaining Candidates if we can believe Illana that there are only Six Remaining Candidates.
The possiblities seem to be
Frank Lapidus – mostly because Illana and Bram mentioned he could be one of them (candidates we presume) yet we have never seen Jacob touch him.
Sun Kwon – Because her married last name is on the wall. However, they just have one Kwon name that appears to be assoicated with One Number 42. So I’m not sure if both Kwon’s could occupy just one number. Meaning I think one or the other will be a candidate, not both.
Other names Illana and Richard. I don’t think either of them is a Candidate as like Dogen, Jacob apparently gave them very specific jobs (Illana, protect the Candidates, Richard, be the Island advisor). Although Richard notes Jacob gave him the gift.
Arron is my Wild Card. He is the only child born on the Island and would be an Ideal choice to grow into Jacobs roll. We know he is special, we just don’t know why or how special. Being born of the Island his development would probably least effect off Island timelines moving forward once an Island protector is selected. Yet he would be too young to assume such power. Also, littleton is crossed off the list. However, if Kate gave him the Austen name, perhaps he is a Candidate? And I don’t remember Claires biological fathers name. Yet, I am going to rule him out as he is to young. Although the thought of Arron & Walt being the New Jacob and MIB is a nice brain teaser.
So, Arron/Walt aside, My guess is the Candidate list is as follows given that I don’t think Sawyer has gone to the darkside, Sayid has gone to the Smokey place (allowing MIB to kill the temple dwellers) and Kate indeed is one of the candiates, that leaves Lapidus as the six candidate.
I thought it was a little strange when he was saying he was suppose to pilot Oceanic flight 815 but overslept. And I think it is Ben who said something to the effect “Yet, the Island still brought you here…”
So my Final 6 Candidates Answer, Regis is:
1) Reyes-#8 (Hugo)
2) Ford-#15 (Sawyer)
3) Shepard-#23 (Jack ?)
4) Kwon-#42 (Jin)
5) Austen-#51 (Kate)
6) Lapidus -?? (Frank)
LOSTINLOST:
Actually Damon and Carlton said they intentionally left Kates name off of the cave wall and made a point to mention Locke, Sayid, Jack, etc so that fans would say “hey why isnt Kate there?” They also stated in the same video that she’s not supposed to be on the cave wall, but that doesnt mean shes not important.
Not sure who the six candidates actually are, and Kate may actually be one because she WAS in the lighthouse…we’ll see!
Ack, you are hilarious…i spent all weekend catching up on your recaps laughing my butt off! My FAVORITE lines were when you recapped a crazed Richard meeting up with Sawyer and urging him to run. I almost peed my pants. Thanks for the recaps, you rock!
Too many comments and no one will read this now, but I’m getting myself psyched for tonight by re-reading this and the new recap. I was just reminded of an idea I had while watching the show — why couldn’t Ben just return to his nurse-blackmail scheme as soon as Alex alreaady had her letter in hand? or maybe as soon as she was admitted to Yale? (Does this mean I am a natural-born schemer?)
PS, what kind of havoc do you think Jacob has brought to people’s lives? Letting them live forever? What?