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Lost: Follow the Leader

Kate: "It was not all misery."
Jack: "Enough of it was."

Clearly, the big question is whether the good things that happened in the past three years outweigh the bad. For Jack, they don't. For Kate, apparently, they do.

I suspect that Kate's motivations have something to do with love. Aaron, Sawyer, Jack. No longer wanted for murder, reconciling with her mother. But Jack's side of the issue is pretty darned powerful: Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Eko. Charlie! Claire, if she is indeed dead. And that's not even a complete list. What about all those passengers that died in the crash, too? Yes, it's a complicated issue. If I were on the Island and choosing sides, I'd be more emotionally inclined to follow Jack. And Sayid, Eloise and Richard. Four powerful, smart people. Not that I believe they're going to pull it off.

Follow the leader. Locke is the leader. I wouldn't follow Locke onto a bus. Ever notice how he keeps promising stuff to people with the greatest of sincerity, and not following through? Although I loved Locke deciding it was time for everyone to go see Jacob. And I loved the smug, amused way Locke treated Ben; it's continually hilarious. Like Locke knows he has the moral upper hand for, well, ever. At least until Ben talks Richard into killing Locke. I can see it coming.

Locke telling Richard what to tell Locke's earlier self was so freaking circular. Did the Island really tell Locke to do that? Does the Island want Locke to kill Jacob? Is Jacob the key to all of this? Is he an embodiment of the Island God, or something? What sort of power does he have? I really would like to find out who or what Jacob is. It's time.

If the Losties are going to die in 1977, then I'm guessing the past can be changed. Faraday could still be rescued. Not that I completely believe Richard. He said he saw them all die, but did he? Maybe Locke traveled forward and time and told Richard to say that.

I'd been wondering what happened to Sayid, and he showed up exactly when he was needed for the take-down. He killed another Other! (Or was it two?) How? Again, I'm wondering about the time travel implications of Sayid killing people in 1977, when he couldn't seem to kill young Ben. Is it because Ben's death would have had an effect on Sayid's own life, that he couldn't cause a paradox? Are the Others outside of time, somehow?

Fun love rectangle stuff. Sawyer made Juliet feel secure in his love again, made her think they were going to live happily ever after in the 1970s. And then Kate came on board, and I could tell Juliet thought that it was all over but the shouting. Like Sawyer couldn't possibly choose Juliet over Kate. But you know what? At this point, I really want Sawyer and Juliet to stay together. Their relationship is so solid and calm and good for both of them. (But then again, dull relationships don't make for exciting television. *Sigh*.)

How are they going to get Kate, Sawyer and Juliet off the sub for the finale? Baby Miles and little Charlotte are on that sub; it has to leave, or it'll cause another paradox. Right?

For me, the most satisfying scenes in this episode were the ones with Miles and Doctor Chang. Making your wife hate you forever in order to save her life and that of your baby ranks way up there in the selfless act department. And I liked that Chang acknowledged the adult Miles and listened to him, a way of showing he cared without trying to blast past Miles' natural reserve. Chang was a good guy. Miles can be proud of him now. How incredibly painful for Miles.

Next week is the season finale, and I have no idea what to expect. (This is where not reading spoilers pays off.) We've been talking about the "incident" since season two, and led to believe that it is inevitable. That the button will get pushed until a certain day in September, 2004, and Flight 815 will crash. Daniel Faraday will always die, and so will all the people in that cemetery on the beach. I suppose that if that's what we get, I can live with it. But what was the point of this entire season if nothing actually changes?

I don't want this whole time travel thing to be self-fulfilling and totally circular. I want them to be able to change time – but not all of it. Because if Flight 815 lands in Los Angeles in 2004, I'm going to throw things at the television.

I want to be surprised. Surprise me, guys.

Character bits:

Young Eloise's acceptance of the bizarre situation and her determination to do something to save Daniel made me like her a little bit more. I know there's stuff we haven't seen about Eloise. Maybe she's not a bitch.



Richard Alpert has a hobby: ships in a bottle. The patience and precision involved suits his personality. Plus it sort of symbolized that he's a god, presiding over all the little people around him. So he's an "adviser," and he's held the job for a very long time. Who gave it to him?

Again, no more info about Daniel. In "The Constant," Daniel was doing experiments in time travel at Oxford in 1996. Which means that he must have been a child in 1977. Where is he? (This is like Lost reviewing deja vu; I just went through this with Ben.)

I wasn't surprised that Sayid would do anything to take back the last three years. He wants Nadia back, as well as all those killings Ben had him do.

Only one nickname. Sawyer called the submarine guy "Nemo."

Bits and pieces:

— Odd parallel, with Jack getting beaten in front of an upset Kate while Sawyer was getting beaten in front of an upset Juliet.

— Will Chang lose his arm in the "incident"? I don't want him to get hurt. I care about Chang now.


— I hate the swimming-under-water-to-a-hidden-hole thing. I end up holding my breath and getting anxious.

— Submarine CGI, with cool dramatic submarine submerging music. Pretty good, but I could still tell it was submarine CGI.

— No specific character backstory again. But that's standard at finale time.

Quotes:

Locke: "I'd appreciate it if you'd join us."
Ben: "Why, John. Don't you trust me here with my former people? Afraid I'll stage a coup?"

Chang: "What year were you born?"
Hurley: "Nineteen... thirty one."
Chang: "You're forty-six?"
Hurley: "Yes, I am."
Chang: "So you fought in the Korean War."
Hurley: "There's no such thing."
Chang: "Who's the president of the United States?"
Hurley: (pause) "All right, dude. We're from the future."

Ben: "This must be quite the out-of-body experience."

Jack: "This is our destiny."
Kate: "Do you know who you sound like?"
Except for the fact that they're still at cross purposes, Jack is a lot more like Locke now. Jack has changed this season.

Sawyer: "We'll buy Microsoft."
Juliet: "Excuse me?"
Sawyer: "And we'll bet the Cowboys in the '78 Superbowl. We'll be rich."

Looking forward to next week's finale. I know a lot of people have found it confusing, but I have loved pretty much every minute of season five,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

17 comments:

  1. If Kate splits up Sawyer from Juliet I'm going to hurl. Since she's got back, she's caused nothing but trouble.

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  2. Yep, I'm with the previous anon. Kate has been nothing but whines and trouble this season.

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  3. They've character-asassinated Kate. Wonder why.

    Wouldn't it be funny if Jack does succeed with the bomb... and it's the bomb that causes the incident? Thereby having the crash of flight 815 be Jack's fault?

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  4. I am pretty sure Eloise is pregnant with Danial, and this it not a spoiler.

    I watch LOST closed captioned, and when she told Widomore she was going to the bomb he said something about "doing that in her state" and he touched her belly.

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  5. My explanations:

    Richard says he wached them die (Jack Kate, Hurley) beacuse he watched them dissapear during the Incident while they were transported back to the present. :)

    Yeah Eloise was pregnant, i heard Widmore talkikng about her "state".

    And i also think that Jack and Sayind will cause the Others versus Dharma war which culminates with the Purge.

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  6. I could see this going in several directions. On the one hand, it doesn't make sense for Daniel to be raised in the way that Eloise raised him unless she knew he was going to meet the 815'ers. Proving that time's imutable.

    However, if Jack does suceed in preventing The Incident, he doesn't have any proof that time for him will be undone. He's working off of "Back To The Future" logic, which isn't necessairily true. He could stop Flight 815 from crashing, but also not erase his past. He might just end up saving a version of himself, who'll go on to live another life. It's the equivalent of Jack saving several hundred strangers.

    It seems to me, that what Jack actually wants to do is comit suicide. Interesting parallels with Locke there, actually.

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  7. Jeez, I guess I'm one of the few people who still like Kate. She risked her neck to get back to Dharma to get Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley, and Miles out of harm's way. And while Juliet is threatened by her, they also work together (like when they both busted their butts and risked everything to save young Ben).

    I can see both views about changing the timeline: Jack's got a compelling point about saving all of the people who died (Shannon, Boone, Charlie, etc.). But Kate's got a point, too. She found people she loved, and finally (to a large extent) stopped running this season. And here's the thing: if everything is erased, the characters revert back to what they were. So Jack still has his God complex, Kate still runs, Sawyer still cons, Shannon is still brittle and mercenary, and Charlie is still a junkie. Now they all certainly *could* still change on their own, but I'm doubting it would happen.

    I guess it's like the whole rescue thing: everyone had reasons to leave and reasons to stay.

    As for Sawyer and Juliet, I agree with you, Billie. I like them together. I never liked Sawyer very much (good actor, but the charecter with all of his unshaven angst irritated me like so much mental poison ivy). But I like him with Juliet. Then again, I *hate* soapy elements in shows, and would rather they put the love triangle/quadrangle to rest. A decent, functional relationship (with some good-natured bickering or banter) is a nice backdrop to all of the other tension. I mean, these folks are always in peril. Can we just leave the love conflict crap alone already?

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  8. Jacks plan to explode Jughead would be a REAL paradox in the making.

    He prevents the incident, stops 815 crashing, which stops him going back in time to prevent the incident.

    For this reason, and because I think the 'failsafe' that Desmond activated at the end of Season 2 was Jughead, I don't think they'll get to go through with their plans.

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  9. This keeps getting better and better. What the hell is Richard? What about his timeless existence, and the ship that he's painstakingly building? Is it a replica of what the Black Rock used to look like? Are the Others perhaps descendants from the Black Rock's survivors? Etc. Etc. Etc.

    What the hell is Jacob? Is he the 'son of Christian'? All these questions that I've been asking myself over the last two to three years are coming back full force. I guess that means that this episode did the perfect job setting us up for the upcoming season finale.

    And, what will the death of Jacob accomplish? According to the scriptures, the death of Jacob lauds the end of an era, and the beginning of a new generation. Is Locke and his Others the new Israel? Phew... Well, just my two cents.

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  10. Kate's always caused nothing but trouble - this is nothing different.

    This review made me laugh a bunch of time - Go Billie!!

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  11. man how badass is this season!!!

    Anyways my two cents:

    I believe the third crew.aka "whats behind the statue" will be the people behind locke and wanting to kill jacob. This will happen with the separation of these and jacobs crew..the classic others.

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  12. Although i enjoyed this ep i found John really irritating. He was just too smug and confident for my liking. And while I'm glad we're moving closer to meeting Jacob i'm also worried that who/whatever he is, it will inevitably end up being a let down because we've been waiting so long. Hopefully this won't be the case and the writers will rise to the challenge.

    As a numerically challenged person in real life, the time jumping has continuously confused me, particularly when trying to work out how old characters were as children in the past. But purely going by the hand on the stomach i think that Eloise is pregnant with Dan and that's at least partly what's motivating her to help Jack.

    The highlights of this ep for me were John striding into the others camp with the boar on his shoulders (i'm a vegetarian but i still found it amusing), Richard asking John if he wanted the bullit back and Sawyer calling Juliet sweetheart. I think i'm officially a Sawyer/Juliet fan. The writers better not kill either of them off in the finale !

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  13. Jo, But isn't it a nice change that Locke is finally the man with all the clues - as opposed to the man who is always getting conned and confused? I love how Locke is playing around with both Richard and Ben - when once it was the other way around.

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  14. I think they are all gonna "die" and then the spaceship (the island) will be able to take off thru time

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  15. I think that everything that is happening now ( in the past ) .. is what causes everything to happen later.( in the future) I am starting to think that we are watching the makings of a continuous time loop of events .. and the only thing I can see happening .. is that it will all happen again .. and again .. and again .. in other words .. they will NOT change anything .. it will all happen as it was always going to happen .. and will do nothing but bring them back to the present former situation ..? or is that the past former situation ..? Or... the present situations that they are addressing future issues in ...???
    By Jonnie

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  16. Commenting late, as I've just watched the season.

    I'm not even going to try and wrap my head around the time/versions/history thing. I'm just along for the ride.

    BUT - that Hurley/Chang exchange has got to be one of the funniest moments on Lost.

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  17. But what was the point of this entire season if nothing actually changes?

    A question, I'm afraid, I've been asking myself for quite some time now. For some reason, this season has not spoken to me at all. I couldn't care less anymore about the story. There are so many plot lines and the writers are just trying so hard to be clever that a basic story has failed to emerge.

    I am still here because I still care about the characters; although, that, too, if fading fast. We just don't see enough of them. When Sayid popped up, I thought "oh yeah. I nearly forgot about him." What I really hope happens in the finale is that the Incident wipes everyone out, except the core group, and we can get back next season to the joy of seasons one and four.

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