Widmore knew that things were coming to a head and figured that if anyone was going to be the instrument of the MiB’s release, it would be the man who double-crossed him and had him exiled from the island. So he sent mercenaries to remove Ben from the picture or, failing that, kill everyone on the island so that the MiB would not be able to “remove the cork” so to speak, and have to wait for a new set of candidates to arrive.
Widmore still considers himself a loyal follower of Jacob and the true leader of the Others and, like the MiB, has a “you’re either with me or against me” mentality, knowing that any who side against him are completely lost to the enemy.
Oh, I get why Mr. Paik did that - he probably knew that if the money was confiscated from Jin, Keamy would do the deed anyway (Keamy being an utter bastard, and also knowing that Mr. Paik’s word was good). Paik knew Sun would likely try to take the money out of her account to pay Keamy - closing Sun’s account was Paik’s way of turning the thumbscrews tighter, letting Sun know there is no escaping his control.
Sun would have found herself alone, penniless & grief stricken at her lover’s death–in a country where she couldn’t speak the language. She would have had no choice but to call her father & beg for a ticket home. Where, no doubt, he had a “business associate” lined up to marry her.
Loved this episode. Had considered watching V, but that dreadful thing on the screen changed my mind. Forever.
And we also had the guy who magically appeared in the box say, “There I was driving on the I10 when someone plowed my car into the guard rail. I woke up here.”
But apart from the guys on both ends of the event telling us exactly what happened, no, we have nothing.
Ah, my “stopgap” theory gathers momentum. Exxxcellent.
He seems to be a temporal anomaly of sorts, as seen with his premonitions, perhaps due to his exposure to the implosion of the Swan station. As Widmore and his crazy geophysicist seem very interested in the electromagnetic energy sources on the island, Desmond, having been so thoroughly exposed to them, has maybe developed special properties ( trigger? inhibitor? ) that make him valuable as a living device.
Yeah, I’m in love with it. I cannot stand the random spooky bullshit they made up and threw in the show with zero thought other than hey, let’s put cool shit in there for the nerds to geek out over. Like the whispers. Fuck them.
Your stopgap theory gives meaning to some of the stupidity. For example, I was (and still am) insulted by the whole “the body must be wearing your father’s shoes” bullshit during the season when they were getting back to the island. But the stopgap theory gives real meaning and purpose behind the idea that they all had to go back.
Without your theory the endless refrain of everyone must go back has zero meaning other than the writers wanted to keep those characters on the show.
Just a note: it was Widmore that ordered the Dharma purge, not Ben. Widmore was leader and was exiled before Ben was leader.
I concur that this ep was a little weak. First of all, the sideways world is really petering out as a concept at this point: it just seems to be all the characters, a little more well adjusted, with an occasional cameo goose for good measure. There’s just not enough to it yet to feel like it’s heading for anything in particular. I think it may well be the “epilogue” and that prospect is just sort of disappointing, really, because while it’s nice to see the resolution of these characters a) it feels like a cheat, since it’s not a resolution for THE characters b) it doesn’t actually have any suspense to it: nothing is at stake.
Honestly, when I heard they were bringing back lots of old characters, I was expected much more than this: I was expecting a little more of their existing storylines and feelings to be fleshed out, not that we’d simply see them playing, basically, different characters. Oh, wow, it’s Boone! Only not!just isn’t enough of a hat to hang the resolution of Boone’s storyline on. Ghosts and dreams were far better.
Maybe they’ll surprise me: it DOES seem like making us think one thing and then switching it up is something they’d do. But at this point, I just can’t get invested enough in the sideways stuff to care about all the time it’s taking away from the Island stuff.
As for the Island stuff: I hope there’s something more to Sun’s headwound than crazy fun: I hope it IS somehow a breaking in of the sideways reality. I dunno.
I also agree that the Ben/Widmore rivalry is a personal thing – a power struggle between two people who are essentially on the same side but each want to be in control. Remember in the ALT timeline when Ben was trying to get the principal fired in order to steal his job? That was a parallel, I think, with what he did to Widmore on the Island. In both cases, the guy in charge was corrupt and Ben thought he could do a better job. Only in the ALT timeline Ben didn’t go through with it, and on the Island he did. Widmore held a grudge for years, and never gave up on trying to get back to the Island, overthrow Ben, and resume leadership in guarding the Island, or helping Jacob narrow down the candidates, or whatever the hell the Others did all day. (As a poster stated in a previous thread, the exact nature/responsibilities of the Others over the years is still a HUGE blank that needs to be filled in.)
Maybe we’ll see an uncomfortable truce develop between Widmore’s team and the Losties on the beach. Richard wants to destroy the plane so Smokey can’t use it, and Widmore is guarding the plane for the same reason. Plus Widmore is the only guy who has a reliable way off the Island. They each have reasons to help each other.
I can’t wait to find out what Widmore plans to do with Desmond. His “unstuck in time” status must be crucial. Does Widmore want to send Desmond back in time to flood the Island, thus creating the ALT timeline? Or does he want him to prevent the ALT timeline? Either way, I still think Widmore’s looking for the Frozen Donkey Wheel, so Des can use it to time travel. Or something.
Also, for those of you who watch the previews, did anyone catch what may be a HUGE spoiler among an otherwise unrevealing series of images? I won’t go into detail, but it sure looked like it to me.
If it involves Who Sawyer was kissing then yes, I saw that too.
Best line of the episode, possibly of the series:
Sawyer: “What do you need a boat for? Can’t you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?”
Smocke: “Do you think if I could do that, I would still be on this Island?”
Sawyer: (Sarcastically) “No, because that would be ridiculous.”
Yeah, I’m hoping that there’s more to the sideways than it just being an epilogue. I did think that that there might be something crossing between the timelines with Sun. Maybe island Sun can’t speak english because alternate Sun can’t?
There’s also the possibility that many of the alternate characters are going to meet up:
Sawyer, Miles, and Kate (and Charlie, I guess) are together
Sun & Jin are heading to the hospital, where I’m sure they’ll run into Jack
Sun might need to get the baby looked at by, say, Juliet
Claire also might need her baby examined
Locke is supposed to give Jack a call
Sayid’s brother is still at the hospital too
So maybe they all meet up, and then Desmond uses his timeline-fu to connect the two realities together. Who knows?
Forgot to note that we had more mirror weirdness, only IMO it was more blatant this time. Did I miss something, or did Sun get a sudden and inexplicable weird look on her face when she was looking in the mirror that had nothing to do with the guy knocking on the door?
Plus, Ben thought Jacob lived in the cabin, but we now know MIB lived there. Maybe Ben has been mistakenly working for MIB the whole time.
That said, I think Miles’s reading of Jacob’s ashes tips us off that he is in fact the good guy. He said Jacob wanted Ben to not kill him. I think this was more than self-preservation. I believe he wants people to be good.
All of those arrived when Jacob was still keeping him on the island.
Because it was a vaguely disappointing episode! Oddly enough, the Sun/Jin plotline was NOT the reason the episode was mediocre.
I think Widmore is an anti-hero sort. I think he believes he is doing good, but does so by any means necessary.
The presence of the geophysicist and the discussion of the Dharma Initiative gives me hope that some of the Dharma/Otherville mysteries will be solved.
Given that, what are the five mysteries you cannot live without having solved?
Walt!
What’s up with the Ann Arbor people? (e.g.- the DeGroots)
Jacob/MIB’s origin
Why babies die on the island.
Adam and Eve
I’d like to know about the Serum, the Australian psychic, Henry Gale, and Libby in the boobyhatch, but I could live with 1-5. I’d be ok if they even did not tell WHY the island is special. I’m ok with THAT mystery.
Of these, I think we will get 3-5. The whole season encompasses #3. #4 seems likely since the statue was a fertility godess. #5 has been referenced this season.
I am not confident we will get #2. #1? Your guess is as good as mine!
In regards to why Paik sent Sun and Jin to the US for Jin to be killed, here’s my fanwankery:
Distance. LA cops probably won’t travel to Korea to investigate this murder, Korean cops likely won’t go to LA to investigate this murder.
Deniability. Kill Jin in Korea and Sun will automatically think her father did it. Kill Jin in America, Sun can be persuaded that “things like that happen there.”
(or)
He’s a callous bastard, sending Sun a message that nowhere will she escape his control: “I’ll kill your boyfriend and confiscate your cash - there’s no escaping me.”
IMHO, this plot line is a lot more believable than Sun being awarded enough cash by Oceanic Airlines to be able to buy out her fathers multi-billion $ industrial concern.
Regarding the potential spoiler shot in the previews . . .
NOTE: The following contains discussion of the brief scene in question as well as speculation based on possible spoilers about a future episode, so YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Right after the text that says “LIVES LOST” (or something similar), there is a brief scene of what appears to be flaming wreckage in the water, and something sinking below it. Just by process of elimination we can figure out that this is either the plane or the sub. Either way, it seems to confirm rumors/possible spoilers I’ve read that something catastrophically bad is going to happen in an upcoming episode and several characters will die as a result.
I don’t really think it was a spoiler, but I’ll explain in the spoiler box, since it’s a reply to yours.
When I saw that in the preview, I thought that was just old footage – the sinking freighter from the season 4 finale.
In fact, it looks like the trailers at the ends of shows in the last couple weeks have been mixing in some footage from prior seasons. One easy bit of evidence can be seen from the one last night. At the end of the episode when they dragged Desmond out of the sub, he didn’t have a beard. In the “trailer” promo for next week, right after “LOVE LOST”, they panned by bearded Desmond (footage from season 3, I’d guess).
Oddly enough, the Sun/Jin plotline was NOT the reason the episode was mediocre.