Lower Decks

LOST
“The Incident”
Originally Broadcast Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

LOST‘s producers referred to the season five finale as a “game changer.”  That, heading into the final season of the show, things wouldn’t ever be the same.  And I can safely say that, after watching the finale, they were right.  Because the events of “The Incident” have changed the game, and I don’t think LOST will ever be the same again.

I can safely say that I have no idea what season six has in store for us because the finale didn’t give us any hints.  Did the bomb re-write the first five years of the show?  If so, where does that leave Jacob and his enemy?  If not, what will happen to Jack and company?

Who is Jacob’s mysterious enemy, and how did he come to take over John Locke’s body?  Who are “they” that Jacob said were “coming?”  And, once and for all, who actually are the “good guys” in this show?

A lot of questions left to ask, and there are only 17 episodes left in which to answer them.  I really can’t believe that the show is winding down because it seems like we’re going to need so much more time.

Because, think about it.  Less than twenty episodes to go, and we were introduced to two hugely significant characters: Jacob and his enemy.  They might be the most important characters when it comes down to the final endgame, and we just met them.

Of course, we did finally get to meet Jacob, and that was exciting.  Like Richard, he doesn’t seem to age, and he finally answers the “chance” vs. “destiny” question that Locke and Jack always argued about.  It seems like every surviving member of Oceanic 815 was chosen for that flight, and a lot of them were chosen a long time ago.

Through flashbacks, we see Jacob appear at pivotal moments of each survivor’s life.  Jin and Sun’s wedding.  The day James wrote the note to Sawyer.  The day Nadia died.  The day of Jack’s famous “count to five” story.

Jacob even appears to Hurley on the day before Ajira 316.

And I came to the conclusion that Jacob might actually be the good guy.  The very beginning shows him having faith in, I assume, humanity.  I’m guessing that he summoned the Black Rock so that people could experience the magic of the Island.  His enemy warns him of the dangers that people would bring to the Island, but Jacob sees waste in not allowing the Island to help people.

His mysterious, unnamed enemy seems to be the bad guy.  He’s opposed to Jacob’s faith in people, and he admits a desire to murder Jacob and promises to find a “loophole” in which to do it.

And that’s where I’d like to start – Jacob obviously has a great deal of supernatural power.  Or, at the very least, he has the ability to use the Island’s power to keep himself young and alive.  Like Richard, Jacob doesn’t appear to age at all.  But we’ve only seen an unaged Richard since the 1950s – Jacob has looked the same since, at least, the 1800s.

And Jacob’s power doesn’t just extend to himself – Richard claims that it is Jacob that has kept him alive and young.  Its possible that Jacob has extended his power onto others, but as far as we know, he hasn’t “fountain of youthed” anyone else.

Of course, if Jacob was keeping Richard alive, would that cause Jacob’s death to lead to Richard’s?  Would there be any other effects of Jacob’s death?  Of course, we don’t even know that Jacob is dead, but we’ll talk about future consequences in a bit.

If I’m right and Jacob is the good guy, we can start to assign good/bad labels to everyone else.  Jacob’s enemy, inhabiting Locke, would be a bad guy.  Richard would be a good guy.  I’d assume that, since they were helping Jacob, Bram and Illana would also be good guys.

Then you have to start looking into the people that were helping Spirit Locke to complete his plan.  Remember that the Monster, as Alex, told Ben to do whatever Locke told him to do – that ended up being the assignment to kill Jacob.  So, whether the Monster would be considered “good” or “bad,” it definitely wanted Jacob dead.  Is there a chance that the Monster is “bad?”  Is that why Jacob’s cabin was surrounded by ash – does that possibly keep the Monster away from Jacob?

What about ChrisitianShepherd?  If Locke is really dead, then Christian would also be really dead.  And if Locke was inhabited by an “evil” spirit, does that mean that Christian was also inhabited by an evil spirit?  If so, we have to look at everything that he’s said with a slanted view.  And that includes everything from moving the Island to turning the frozen donkey wheel.

Then there’s Eloise Hawking.  Christian told Locke to visit her – she’s the one that arranged for the flight on Ajira316.  She’s the one that, I assume, arranged for Locke’s body to be used as a “proxy.”  If Christian is “bad” – then Eloise could be bad as well.  Perhaps both she and Widmore came into contact with Jacob’s enemy at some point when they were both on the Island?

It will be very interesting to see what happens with all of that next year.

Speaking of Evil Locke, now that we know that he’s dead, it explains a lot.  Both Ben and Richard were extremely surprised at the idea that Locke had come back to life – that should’ve been our first clue that something was wrong.  Then there’s the different “aura” to Locke – I think we all assumed that his personality quirks were all a consequence of his death.

But we have to ask the question – is Locke fully dead?  Because either Jacob’s enemy did his homework – or a part of Locke is still alive.  I’d have to go back and watch a lot of his scenes again, but it does seem like Locke spoke correctly of memories.  Maybe Jacob’s enemy had access to Locke’s memories because he was very convincing – I never thought for a second that Locke wasn’t Locke.

But I’m sure when I go back and watch that there will be several little clues that we all missed.

Speaking of Locke and resurrections, we were given reason to believe that Locke has been resurrected by Jacob before.  In one of the “Jacob influence” flashbacks, we see Locke falling from the office building.  Jacob, who was reading nearby, is the only one to approach Locke’s lifeless body.

In fact, it looks like John is dead until his body is touched by Jacob – only then does Locke wake up in pain.  Is there a chance that Locke did die in that fall, and that Jacob saved his life?  Locke’s survival was obviously crucial to the destiny of the Island, and his paralysis was just as important to John’s faith.  I thought that was very interesting.

Before I move on beyond the Jacob stuff, I wanted to mention the statue.  For the first time, we get to see the full image of the famous four-toed statue.  From what I’ve read, it appears to be the Egyptian goddess Tawaret – images I’ve looked up look very similar and others look very different.  Until I see differently, I’m going to assume that’s what the statue is supposed to be.

But that’s just another example of the Egyptian presence on the Island.  I’m guessing the Egyptian influence will be huge by the end of this show.

Let’s move on to the 1977 stuff, and let’s start with Jack and Sayid.  The group finds a way to disconnect the core of the hydrogen bomb from the casing, and they proceed to head toward the Swan site.  When they reach the underground of the Barracks, Richard allows Jack and Sayid to go, but he knocks out Eloise to protect her.

I found this very interesting – it has seemed obvious to me that Richard disapproves of Charles and Eloise’s leadership, but he remains fiercely loyal to them nonetheless.  Just another reason to love Richard.

But then there’s what Richard told Sun about Jack and company – that he watched them die.  But unless he went back to the Swan site after taking Eloise back, he wasn’t anywhere near Jack to watch them die.  So either he was lying, he did make his way to the Swan site, it simply hasn’t happened yet, or the past was changed.  I can’t imagine that line was thrown in for pure drama…so I’ll be very interested to see how that turns out.

When Jack and Sayid reach the interior of the Barracks, they see the increased presence of the Dharma people.  Sayid recommends that he and Jack hide “in plain sight” by dressing in Dharma jumpsuits, hoping that the chaos outside would allow them to escape.

I’m not usually one to disagree with Sayid, but I thought this was a terrible plan.  Jack might’ve been able to walk through undetected, but Sayid is Enemy Number One in Dharmaville.  And, not to bring race into it, but as a minority, he also easily stood out in the ”mostly white” village.  I was surprised that no one recognized him earlier.

So, of course, Sayid is spotted by Roger, and Roger shoots Sayid in the chest.  Jin, Hurley, and Miles show up to rescue them, but the damage has already been done, and Sayid spends the rest of the episode fighting for his life.

Meanwhile, on the submarine, Sawyer seems content withstaying on board.  He’s through with the Island, and he simply wants to get off.  Kate tries to convince him to leave, but Sawyer seems adament.

Juliet, however, makes the tiebreaking decision and allows for their escape.  Sawyer, shocked, follows his girlfriend’s lead and helps with the escape.

When they reach the Island, they’re reunited with three old friends: Rose, Bernard, and Vincent.  It seems that the three of them have been living in “early retirement” in an isolated part of the Island for the past three years.  They haven’t been found, but they also haven’t wanted to be found.  They’re happy with their new lives, and they don’t have any interest in helping Sawyer/Kate/Juliet stop Jack.

It was nice to see Rose and Bernard because I was starting to wonder what happened to them.  I’m not sure I buy the idea that they could’ve been living in a little house for three years without Dharma or the Hostiles finding them, but it was still nice to see them.  And if we never see them again, this actually served as a pretty nice close to their storylines.  If it is, I wish them nothing but the best.

Vincent, however, still has work to do.  I’m sure of it.

Sawyer and his two ladies eventually catch up to Jack in order to stop him.  Despite the fact that Sayid is dying inside the van, Jack agrees to “five minutes” to discuss their plan.

And that’s something I found very unusual.  Jack spends the first half of the episode frantically trying to keep Sayid alive, but once Sawyer shows up, it doesn’t really seem to be an issue.  Maybe everyone else is simply confident enough in the plan to realize that, if it works, Sayid would be fine, but it just seemed like an awkward shift in tone.  Sayid was the center of attention one minute and an afterthought the next.  Very odd.

And then we’re given one of the more bizarre scenes in the show’s history as Jack and Sawyer finally have their all-out brawl.  Sawyer tries to talk Jack out of using the bomb, but Jack doesn’t want to.  And as much as it was a fight between Jack and Sawyer, it seemed like a fight between season one versions of Jack and Locke.  Jack has certainly become a sort of Locke protege, and he’s done it very quickly.

It was a pretty cool fight, but then Juliet shows up – she’s changed her mind, and she doesn’t want to stop Jack anymore.

From people I’ve talked to, this was a part of the episode that they didn’t like.  Juliet claims that she’s changed her mind because she still believes Sawyer loves Kate.

But, from a quick Juliet flashback showing her parents’ divorce, we get to see that Juliet’s view of love is a bit warped.  She’s taught as a little girl, when her parents are explaining the divorce, that people can be in love but aren’t supposed to be together.  When you add up her disfunctionalrelationships with her ex-husband, Goodwin, Ben, and Jack…you start to see that a lot of her lovers end up dead in one way or another.  So, in a way, I think the multiple “mind changes” make sense.

Jack is even able to convince Kate to go along with the plan.  I didn’t really buy that one as much because Kate has been pretty strong in her opposition to Daniel’s plan.  But I think it comes down to the fact that Kate simply has faith in Jack, and she saw how much pain it caused him to have ever known her.  She realizes that she doesn’t want to see him hurt, and that she’ll try as hard as she can to help him.

With that, the group is all together and work to carry out Daniel’s plan.

Meanwhile, at the Swan, Radzinsky obsessively continues to pursue the drilling.  Despite warning signs everywhere, he pushes through.  When he hears of the gunfight at the Barracks, he requests additional security at the site.

In the end, a gunfight breaks out at the site, and the Losties, working together, are able to take control of the situation.  Jack gets to the drilling site, and he drops the bomb inside.

And for a few seconds, nothing happens.  It does seem, however, to ignite the electromagnetism in the hole.  All metal items in the area begin to get sucked into the area, and everyone tries to run for cover.  Phil, Lafleur’s deputy, is killed…Chang’s arm is injured…and Juliet is sucked into the hole by a large metal chain.

Despite his best efforts, Sawyer is unable to save her, and she falls into the hole.  Kate and Jack are barely able to pull Sawyer away to safety.

Meanwhile, Juliet has survived the fall, and she sees the undetonated bomb next to her.  With her last bit of strength, she grabs a rock and starts to hit the device.  After hitting it the eighth time, it appears to detonate in a flash of white light.

I have to say that Juliet’s deathwas sad.  She’s been a very tragic character, and I think Elizabeth Mitchell has done a great job with her.  The difference she was able to display between pre-Island Juliet’s meek softness and her current strong and tough self was incredible, and I think the show will miss her presence if she’s truly dead.  It will also be sad that Juliet, who only wanted to get off the Island to see her sister again, will never make it.

Then there’s Sawyer – in a lot of ways the only consistent character left on the show.  Losing Juliet will be extremely difficult on him because he was able to grow with her.  I think it Kate’s return has been difficult on him, but I think he always intended on staying faithful to Juliet.  And when she fell from his hand, we saw a sadness and anger that we’ve never really seen from Sawyer.  I thought Josh Holloway played that well too.

So what’s next?  I guess that all depends on whether or not Daniel’s plan worked.  I really can’t imagine that it did – otherwise it would completely nullify anything that happened in the 2007 scenes.

Then again, maybe they’ll get sent back to 2004 with all their memories intact.  That might lead Rose, Bernard, and Locke to try to head back to the Island to heal their injuries, and others might simply go back to rescue people still on the Island (Sawyer might go back for Juliet, others might go back to save Desmond).

If it didn’t happen, what then?  Will the 1977 people get sent back to 2007?  What will be the aftermath of the attack on Jacob?  What will we learn about Christian and Locke and Jacob’s enemy?

Then there are the people who didn’t appear in the finale.  What about Desmond and Claire and Walt?  What is the next step for 2007 Widmore and Hawking?

Then there are the mini cliffhangers – who are the “they” that Jacob referred to?  Is it Bram’s group?  Is it the 1977 people?  Or is it some other group that we don’t know about?

We’ve come a long way since the crash of Oceanic 815 – we’ve had a lot of questions that have been answered, and we’ve learned a lot about the Island and its mysterious inhabitants.  But as this finale shows, we still have a lot to learn, and it is a bit unbelieveable to know that we only have about 17 hours left of material to learn it all.

To all of the people who loved the finale, I’m sure you’ll be with me in eagerly anticipating the final season.  To those of you who didn’t like it, I would advise you to have faith.  Whether you believe it or not, the writers have plan, and it’s in motion.  If you’ve stuck with the show this long, you should stick with it for the final season.  You might feel frustrated, but your questions will be answered.

And many of them, including what happened when the bomb went out, will be answered very quickly in the season six finale.  And while that’s nine months away, it will be here quicker than you think.

So this wraps up another season of LOST reviews.  Thank you to everyone who read all my reviews, and thanks to the Lower Decks staff for the opportunity to do this.  I had a great time, and I hope you did too.

Next season is going to be bittersweet, counting down to the final hour of new LOST.  Hopefully I’ll be here to review those last few episodes, but if I’m not, you know I’ll be watching.  We’ll see you next year on the Island…