Tonight's episode seemed to support the position that Jacob is a puppeteer and not a benevolent deity. When you look at Dogen's timeline, it's safe to say things are going considerably better for him in the non-crash universe. In the crash-happened island timeline, it looks like Jacob set him up by killing(?) Dogen's son, and then using his resurrection(?) to lure Dogen to the island. In the non-crash timeline, Dogen's son is alive and happy. In the non-crash timeline, Sayid seems to have found some measure of redemption. In the crash-happened timeline, he is either dead or evil. It's clear that the show has positioned Jacob as the protagonist and Smokey as the antagonist - the question remains: what is the protagonist's goal, and is it noble, or is he just out to prove a point by manipulating the lives of the characters?
I know most of the devout followers picked up on this right away, but I still thought it was really cool how they brought back the reference to "Catch a Falling Star" in tonight's episode. That voiceover singing in the background at the end gave me chills. Absolutely loved this episode. For those who didn't catch Claire singing it in the hole or the voiceover.... <a class="postlink" href="http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Catch_a_Falling_Star" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Catch_a_Falling_Star</a>
I actually have one of the promo photos (the one with the grinning Locke), and its starting to look like there is a lot more meaning to them. If you notice the smiling one, almost everyone that seems to have aligned themself with FLocke is on his right (save Illana and Richard), and the ones on his left are...well, not. I wonder if Illana and Richard end up siding with FLocke somehow. Also, in the 3rd photo, Claire and Miles switch places. Kinda interesting...
Nadia has a sizable rock on her hand. That cry of "Hi, Uncle Sayid" from the kids was like a gut punch. Every man has a scale from good to evil, hey? Hmmm... Where have we seen a scale with light and dark recently? Holy crap. Sayid just lost the Pwnage Olympics to Dogen. Saved by a baseball... Sayid's brother is a dick. This is the guy that Sayid has been picking up the slack for his entire life, from killing chickens to giving him his best girl. And he tries emotional blackmail? Fuck you, bro. Dogen keeps on trying to get people to do the things he wants, but he keeps offering them their own greatest desires as reward. Redemption for people dying (by killing) for Jack. Proving he's a good person (by killing) for Sayid. Maybe the Japanese Bible has different commands in it. Or, you know, whatever their religion is. Buddhism? God bless Miles for saying what I was thinking. Claire's all weird now. Still hot, though. Flocke is... very convincing. You think him saying "Hello Sayid" was enough to key Dogen's "once he talks, it's too late" warning? Emilie de Ravin can actually act. I believed she was full on batshit crazy the way her face twisted when Kate said "I raised him". Poor choice of words, by the way. Still hot though. Sayid vs. Loan Sharks was a given as soon as his dick brother woke him up. I did not see Keamy coming. At least Sayid beat him this time around. Also, JIN! Oh yeah, I'm onboard with the "infection/claiming" thing now. Claire and Sayid are fucking GONE. Sawyer should still be ok, though. He hasn't died yet. That would make sense of not only his body being missing, but also Claire referring to her Dad and her friend as two different beings. He wasn't possessed until after he drowned in the pool. Oooh. Cassidy. I like that idea.
The more I think about it, the more intrigued I am by the 4 different Losties who are now with Flocke. Claire, Sayid, Sawyer and Kate (apparently). Claire and Sayid are clearly possessed, while Sawyer and Kate seem to be there voluntarily. This distinction has to mean something, right? It's sort of sad to see Sayid turn into a bad guy... but maybe he's not all gone. Anyone think Sayid ends up sacrificing himself to save the Island? Or something along those lines?
I still look at how Sayid and Claire are "posessed" and think to myself that this is not how they will be in 4 episodes. Something is going to happen to get rid of that, how or why is a mystery. They didn't develop the characters like Sayid so much to just let him be taken over by some evil. In fact, I thought they would have done the opposite. I still want to hear people's theories on how the two timelines will sync up (or come together).
See, I feel that they have been setting Sayid up to become evil the entire time. This is the whole reason he was developed. On more than one occasion, in moments of true reflection, he described how he always had a slightly dark side within him (i.e. the ability to kill and torture people). Sure we've seen him grapple with it too. God how many times have we seen him say "that part of my life is over" only to see him go and kill someone after the next commercial break. But this was meant to make us like him and forget his indiscretions. So it is really surprising to see him become evil? Nah. The only thing throwing me off is his cross pose when he was taken out of the pool, but I suppose that implied resurrection more than salvation in hindsight. In my opinion, let him be possessed. We've already brought him back from the dead this season, now you want him to be cured? Let's not give him too many passes, and anyway, were such a cure to exist I'd expect the people at the Temple would know about it. I hope there's only one cure, death, and Sayid's gotta go. When Sayid said the only thing he wanted died in his arms, did he mean Shannon or Nadia? Sayid or someone else, we're getting to the point of the series where you have to kill something other than redshirts. Dogen and Lennon I suppose are a start, but I mean from the cast for the bulk of the series. Who do people think is going to live and who's going to die? Surely some people are going to get killed, maybe everyone?
I really hope they mean Nadia. If the only thing he wanted was Shannon, after knowing her 3 months, that would be an incredibly gay play by the writers. Agreed about the Redshirts. Have they even killed anyone off the past season and a half? It's time. Benny gets the axe? Oh, and someone posted this in the commment section of one of Ack's reviews. I read this and lost (pun) it laughing. Apparently the guy started watching Lost the final season (so he doesn't know any of the backstory). I'm sure this has bene posted before. http://neverseenlost.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/episode-5-of-the-final-season-of-lost/
Three months? I think it was more like 48 days or however long the Tailies were over on Kidnap Beach. And whoever thinks Sayid Jarrah is evil has no appreciation for justice. Last night's killing spree was five years in the making. Our Iraqi Angel of Vengence finally took out most of our collective frustrations by getting postively medevial on characters that couldn't give anyone a straight fucking answer. What's that Mr. Moto? Don't want to tell me who or what the fuck Jacob is? Well then...IN TO THE DROWNING POOL WITH YOU!!! What's that Sol Star? You feel like throwing out open-ended declarations like "He's the only one keeping us safe!" without even a hint of exposition? Well then...HOW DOES MY DAGGER OF GET-TO-THE-FUCKING-POINT TASTE!!! At least Ben Linus - who I'm now wondering how he ever got the job of Top Other to begin with seeing as how he never met Jacob or got to hang out at the Temple Day Spa - had the good sense to beat feet when he saw Sayid dropping fools left and right. Mr. Linus has got a lot of 'splainin to do to and I think he realized Sayid was in no mood to get dicked around. My only regret is that Sayid didn't keep on rolling with his Dagger of Justice. I could have stood for a scene where he put the blade to Kate's neck and asked "Jack or Sawyer...pick one you fucking nitwit!" And, the bad guy strut with Sayid and CrazyClaire at the end was all kinds of awesome. Even Kate's useless tag-along couldn't ruin it.
Daniel Charlotte Juliet No way in hell Ben dies. Alluding to it in previews is the easiest way to tell they won't be killing Ben.
Wow, completely spaced on Juliet. Although I think that goes back to me thinking we haven't seen the last of her. Either way, complete space on my part. I didn't consider Charlotte a big enough part but I guess she is. I think I watched the last 5 episodes of season 5 too quickly and hungover. When (if) do you think Ben will be killed off? Will he even get it by the end?
Easy. She came back to the Island because she wanted to reunite Aaron with his real mother. She's there for Claire and she's not leaving without her. Though her constant habit of trying to join the A Team and just getting kidnapped over and over again is sort of pathetic, at least she's trying to accomplish something.
I thought the scene where Ben comes in to get Sayid was hilarious. Lennon runs up to Sayid, screaming in his face after Sayid just killed a man, and of course gets killed himself. Ben stumbles in, sees the two dead bodies, looks at Sayid, and is like, Fuck this, I'm out. If he dies, it won't be through fault of not possessing basic survival instincts.
I honestly can't see them killing off Ben, not unless he get to make the ultimate island sacrifice which saves everyone and atones for killing Jacob. No other character has dramatically changed the face and course of Lost more than Benjamin Linus.
Sawyer wasn't in this last episode at all, I took that to mean the Flocke left him in the cave. With the ladder broken, there's no way, presumably, for him to get out. Since that creepy kid told Flocke that he couldn't kill Sawyer (because he can't kill candidates?), he did the next best thing and got him out of the way without killing him. I don't think it would really bad that terrible if on-island Ben died next week, he has been pretty worthless as a character since he killed Jacob and it was revealed that he wasn't really the grand schemer we all though he was. Also, they broke the synchronicity with the first season's episodes, last nights was supposed to be Jin and Sun's, which means, i guess, that we won't be getting another Charlie-centric episode. Where is he by the way?
Hilarious scene. The only thing I could think of while watching that was Spoiler [not really a spoiler]
Anyone think that the reason Smokey sent Claire in to the temple was to get Kate to join Team Smokey? I mean, surely he knew that Claire would be captured. And she made almost no attempt to deliver any kind of message, except to try to trick Dogan into leaving the Temple. And she made no attempt to escape, knowing she would be safe in her hole. So why else would she have been sent?
He couldn't go in himself. We thought it was because of the ash, but it was apparently because of Dogen. Which is why, after Sayid killed Dogen, Lenon said "what are you doing, he was the only thing keeping it out!" So he knew Dogen wouldn't leave himself, he wanted someone else to come out, be charmed, go back in, and kill Dogen. Thereby letting himself in.
What did sending Claire in have to do with Sayid's leaving? The 2 events seem completely isolated. And if Smokey was responsible for Sayid's resurrection, then he was probably aware that Sayid would be getting the boot from the temple at some point. But what did sending Claire in accomplish? The only thing I can think of is to recruit Kate.