Lost with LOST: Are You Following?

The question posed in the title has double meaning after the past episode of LOST. On one hand it asks if you’re following as in “do you have any clue what’s going on?” And on the other hand, after the bone tingling ending from this week’s episode, it’s asking, “who is following FLocke?” The truth is, that while this past episode was pretty epic in terms of plot movement and actual things happening (and how many times can LOST really claim that in the 5+ seasons?), I don’t know if I really liked it. My issue with this episode—and, really, this season as a whole—is that I feel that it’s escaping from everything about LOST we know and are familiar with and venturing out into a different, somewhat odd world. The problem with taking a character driven show away from the characters and moving it to the plot in such a drastic way is that I feel we’re losing a lot of the foundation we had built. It would be like adding marble columns to a trailer home. But since I still subscribe to the motto of “in LOST we trust”, I’m hoping we see some signs of old LOST shining through as we head down the home stretch of this final season.

As I said in my last post, I’m rewatching LOST again from the beginning right now so I can point out some interesting things I’ve seen and how it may relate to the rest of the show. After the epic Season 2 finale, I asked Sarah who is watching this for the first time, what her biggest questions that she wants revealed (and doesn’t know if they will be). Here was her top 5 list with my comments in parentheses: what is the smoke monster? (definitely gets revealed); why do they take the children? (I’m not sure we’ve answered this fully, but we have some idea); why does the island have the power to heal? (again, we’ve touched on this but I don’t think we have a definitive answer quite yet); how do the other’s have connection with the outside world? (definitely gets answered); and, why were those people sitting in a science station in Siberia at the end of Season 2? (also answered). The point of listing these is that you realize while some questions get “answered”, many of them don’t fully, and the questions that we had back in Season 2 don’t seem all that relevant now. It has seemed that as one question gets its answer on LOST, another two get asked.

So now the biggest question most have is what the heck is going on? What do these Sideways Worlds have to do with the Island World and why would they collide—as many have expected them to do? I believe the answer may lie in Season 3. We end Season 2 with a big flash of light covering the sky after the hatch has been blown up by Desmond. And we see a lot of parallels from when the hatch was blown up at the end of Season 5, especially when we look at the characters who were near the imploded hatch. First, Charlie wakes up and it sounds like he’s underwater and he can’t hear out of one ear—sort of like Kate did at the beginning of Season 6. Mr. Eko, a man who had been “forced” to do a lot of bad things over his life and was unrepentant for them, woke up in a near-death state and needed saving, a saving that would be short-lived until an Island darkness took him over (in Eko’s case, Smokey)—sort of like Sayid this season. Locke awoke realizing that what he had done to blow up the hatch was wrong and that his ideas on how to fix things were not what The Island wanted (and he woke up mute)—sort of like Jack this season.

But the most interesting character who survived that hatch blast was Desmond who woke up naked in the forest and with some seriously weird symptoms (if you don't remember the weird episode, it was "Flashes Before Your Eyes"). He could predict the future on The Island and, after Charlie and Hurley got Desmond drunk on 60-year-old scotch, Desmond actually flashed back to his past life with Penny, but in a very weird, déjà-vu-filled way (much like these characters in their Sideways World stories seem to experience the same notion). How about this? Was that not the past we saw of Desmond, but maybe him living his Sideways life? Did the explosion start that story being retold? Remember, characters on Island saw the same imploded hatch Desmond saw and are being “rebooted in that way”. Here’s what Desmond said to Charlie when Charlie demanded to know how he could predict the future: "when I turned that key...my life...flashed before my eyes. And then I was back on the jungle, on this bloody island. But those flashes, Charlie, those flashes didn't stop…I was saving you Charlie." Sound familiar? I think it does. Two more quick things: Eloise Hawking was in this “flashback” but she had the knowledge of the future and that Desmond didn’t buy the ring and didn’t ask Penny to marry him in the “correct” version of the story. And, standing right next to a body of water, Desmond realized that he was not going to be with Penny* and got rid of the ring by throwing it in the water—just like Sawyer did with Juliet’s ring a few episodes back. Hmmm.

*Side Note: Desmond and Penny have to headline the list of “characters not on the island who need to come back.” I’m also interested to see Widmore and how he’ll play into all this and, of course, Walt. And speaking of Walt, didn’t he seem to have the same ability to see the future and predict things happening that Desmond seems to have? Interesting…

Let’s get back to Sayid for a second and the idea of being “infected” (which I think we're all trying to figure out the meaning of). Who else has been infected on this show or could have been infected? When I looked back at Charlie, and how he was hung from the tree by Ethan and looked dead, but suddenly came to live unexpectedly, he seems to be a good candidate. Any of the people who survived the first hatch blast are also good candidates as well. And interestingly enough, when Ben’s tumor operation is done, his stitches get infected (I know that’s a different type of infection, but I figured I’d mention it). But there was another one who I had forgotten about. While Mr. Eko is trying to finish up his term of playing priest in Sydney, he gets a visit from a woman predicting that her daughter was a miracle. She had drowned and suddenly had come back to live when the coroner was trying to perform an autopsy. Her dad? None other than the same psychic who put Claire on Oceanic 815. And he claimed that there was no miracle and it was just his wife trying to get back at him for giving fake miracles to others. But it was him saying this to Eko that got him his chance to leave Sydney on Oceanic 815. And one last thing, that girl—who, watching it again seemed a little “off”, almost like “infected Claire off”—showed up at the airport and told Eko that she had a message to deliver from his dead brother Yemi*. Yikes.

*Side Note: Yemi seems to appear to Mr. Eko as much as Christian appears to Jack. No one else seems to see the same apparition as often. I wonder if The Island was testing these two strong leaders to see who was more fit to deal with their past and repent. When Eko refused to repent to “Yemi”, Yemi informed him that he was not Yemi, turned into the Smoke Monster, and Eko was no more. Hmmm…

I have to say, the Sayid Sideways Story felt to me like a waste of my time. I loved Sayid's backstory, but his Oceanic 6 story and his Sidestory have left me sort of "eh". I rather have more on The Island about what happened with Ben, Lapides, Ilana and Sun* before they suddenly showed up at the Temple. Instead, we got more of what we knew: Sayid was, is, and always will be a killer. I do think we’ll get back to Ben, Lapides, Ilana, Sun and Miles who are traveling through the inner workings of the Temple and I’m very curious to know more about Ilana sometime soon and how the heck she knows all about what’s going on on the island when no one else seems to.

*Side Note: The deteroriation of Sun’s role has become disturbing. For two seasons now, her only lines go something like “Jin? Have you seen my husband?” And it’s all in the same, ridiculously annoying voice. I don’t know if it’s just less being written for her or if her acting has gotten worse, but I’m almost hoping her story ends when Jin shoots her by accident. Was that mean? Sorry.

The big question out there is really about Jacob and MIB and whether they represent good/evil, God/The Devil, or just black/white (my theory). But Jay e-mailed a group of people right after the episode to say this:

Andrew, before you blog your recap, consider discussing this one thing. Johnny Cash released a song in 2002 entitled "The Man Comes Around". It is full of Biblical references, of course, but it fits LOST's themes pretty well. Perhaps Jacob some sort of second coming, maybe Fake Locke is really the devil a.k.a. "Evil Incarnate".

Either way, looking at the lyrics, these two individuals seem to be going around taking names, not everyone is being treated just the same, they are deciding who is free and who is to blame. And yes, many times during the show, the hair on your arm does stand up. Particularly at the end of last night's episode, with Fake Locke and all his "troops" (for lack of a better word) standing around. The song would've fit well there.

I should also mention that the song itself is awesome, and it would sound great on a LOST soundtrack....much like Petula Clark's "Downtown" was amazing in both the hatch and in Juliet's barrack. Anyway, download it and give it a listen, and consider throwing it on the blog.

Done. The e-mail chain debated back and forth  the idea of who Jacob and MIB really represents. Why do I think that it's not as cut and dry as good vs. evil or God vs. The Devil? It's because of Locke's speech to Walt holding up the two backgammon pieces while trying to explain the game. Something to the effect of "two players: one dark, one light, played with dice made of human bone" (paraphrasing since I can't find the line online). Maybe Jacob isn't totally good (and we've seen reasons to believe that) and MIB isn't totally bad (and maybe we've seen some instances of that) and maybe they're just one light and one dark and playing a game with humans (made of bone) as their pawns. I don't know if I even believe that theory (or want to believe it since it takes a lot of the fun out of it), but that's mine as of today. LOST is pretty gray on everything so putting Jacob/MIB into rigid archetypes would seem to be anti-LOST.

There are a few things that make me wonder, however, if The Others may look at Jacob as more of a deity. First, they built a freakin' Temple. Temples seem to be based in religion. Also, once Jacob was revealed as dead in the last episode, people seemed to need to find something else to worship (and/or felt free from worshiping Jacob). And going back to Season 3, when we found Karl (Alex's boyfriend) in Room 23 (a room Walt* had said to have been in during Season 2), we see some sort of shock therapy/psychological experimentation which included the following up on the screen: "God loves you as He loved Jacob". Now, I'm not sure whether this was an Others interpretation of Jacob being God-like or whether there is some more basis in this. But I'm curious to find out. Though I'm not sure we will find out. Damn you, LOST!

*Side Note: This is sort of a weird observation, but it seems that The Others took blood from Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Michael and Walt. Were they testing the blood for something? Maybe they were using Dogen's machine to see if they were good or evil? It was something I didn't notice the first time around (I thought, at first, they were injecting, but realized it was the opposite), but it was something I am now curious about. Did they ever take blood from Sayid, Hurley or Locke? Not sure.

Even though LOST left him out of this episode, let's talk quickly about Jack. The Others had a dossier on Jack and I had always assumed that this came from their research and their ability to leave The Island, but now I wonder if this wasn't Jacob's dossier on Jack. When the episode came on where Jack went to Thailand (Stranger in a Strange Land), I was pretty sure I would see nothing that I needed to know. I was a bit wrong. Jack's girl in Thailand (Achara) has a secret and Jack thinks that she's a prostitute and follows her to find out*. He finds here in what looks like a tattoo shop. But Achara says she is not a tattoo artist; she can see who people are and she marks them. But she claims she can't do it to Jack because he's an outsider. When she finally is demanded to see into Jack, Achara says she sees Jack is a leader and a great man--but this makes him lonely and frightened and angry. Sounds about right. This is also the episode where Juliet gets marked as well. And that marking still hasn't been explained. But when Jack wakes up next in the polar bear cages, he has The Temple Others (the flight attendant, Cindy, and the kids are shown here) observing him and his tattoo. I'm now wondering whether they were told he was a candidate and they had come to observe him to see if he was worthy? Hmmm...

*Side Note: This certainly paralleled "A Tale of Two Cities" where Jack gets suspicious of his father (he thinks that he's sleeping with his ex-wife, Sarah, and follows him to his AA meeting. Interestingly enough, the head of the group, tells Jack that it's a good thing he's there and he should sit down. I took that at the time to mean that Christian had talked about Jack a lot in therapy, but I wonder if maybe he told the group that his son had inherited his substance abuse problems as well. This is also the episode where Jack's dad's voice comes over the intercom and tells him "to let it go". Hmmm....

So let's recap: now where do we have everyone? Miles, Ben, Ilana, Lapides and Sun are inside the insides of the Temple. Jack and Hurley are chilling by the Lighthouse. Claire, Sayid, and Kate are with FLocke. I'm not sure where Sawyer and Jin are but we may assume they are in the same place. And we don't know where Richard* is but we know he's hiding from FLocke. FLocke's scariness continues to manifest and multiply and he has many people following him right now, even after he slaughtered a ton of people in the Temple.  

*Side Note: The first time we see Richard is when he's recruiting Juliet to join him "in Portland." Juliet told him that the only way she'd take the job is if her ex-husband got hit by a bus. The scared look on Richard's face was something I missed the first time around--especially important considering that her ex-husband actually got hit by a bus. Another quick note: Sawyer and Juliet meet by her saying "hi there" to Sawyer as he's trying to escape and then shooting him in the neck with a stun dart. Nice greeting!

So here we go: LOST has very clearly set up the teams and the game is ready to be played. Hurley's tarot card reading predicted a war (also Season 3) as did Charles Widmore to Locke (in Season 5) and I believe this is the war they're talking about. Does the Sideways World's existence depend on Good winning or Evil winning? I'm not sure, but it seems more likely the latter. I've loved the ride so far and I'm excited to see where the LOST writers are going with the end of this season as they conclude this epic journey. The third question from the title is "are you following?" as in "are you watching along and letting LOST take you for the ride?" Yes, LOST, although I'm still lost, I'm following you, you little White Rabbit, right up to the very end.

Thoughts? Comments? Theories? Post your ideas below. Sorry for the late posting this week (work got in the way of life). I'm excited now to go read Doc Jensen from EW, TIME Magazine's LostWatch, The New York Times' Lost Watch (where the picture comes from), and What Alan's Watching and see what they had to say.