No one gives anyone a 4 year contract on a unproven show.
Very true. I have a friend who’s working on a pilot for a network (forget which one), but he’s only got 30Gs to do it with before they decide if they want it and they can cancel the pilot’s production at any time. Silly showbiz.
Still, I’m the opposite of some of you. I’m hoping they explain all the island’s secrets NOW, then finish with the characters in the ALT. Get rid of Jacob and MiB already.
For instance, wasn’t it great to see Ben Linus redeemed in BOTH timelines? In the ALT, he was more concerned with others than himself, a choice he didn’t or couldn’t make on island.
How the timelines will actually merge will be the fun part. Seems clear to me that Desmond has to do that somehow.
Ah, but…instead of, once the show took off, telling them “ok we’ll go with your 4 season thing” ABC said “you’re a cash cow! We’ll keep you on indefinitely now. Thanks!” I think that really messed up the writers’ ability to write cohesively.
BTW there’s some construction going on outside my house today and whatever they are doing sounds exactly like the clicking of the Smoke Monster. Halp!
Something gives me the feeling that Desmond may have to sacrifice himself to the island - maybe throwing himself into an energy pocket - to merge the timelines. It’ll be a big emotional scene of some sort. Makes sense that they’d build up his love story over the years to heighten the effectiveness of his death.
Or maybe it’s all in an autistic boy’s head.
I agree that’s what happened, but I blame the writers for that, not the network. They could have mapped out the 4 year plan and done it anyway, then if the show were still going they could have created a whole new story to continue on.
When the network finally caved and gave them a solid end date, they agreed on three 16-episode seasons. That’s basically two network seasons spread over three years. So really they only got 5 seasons anyway. If they had stuck to their original conception and wrapped it up in 4 seasons, this last one could be all flash-sideways or whatever.
I’m a guy, but I thought the same thing.
If having the ability to make birds commit suicide is the most necessary skill for the perfect candidate, then yes. Otherwise… not really. 
Maybe Jacob doesn’t really leave the Island. What if the magic lighthouse does more than just let him spy on the candidates? He could be using it to project his telepresence. Anything’s possible with a magic lighthouse!
Well, that’s a distinction without a difference if his projected telepresence can touch people, pay for items that shoplifiting little girls were about to steal, sit on park benches reading books, ride in cabs, give people guitar cases, etc.
Apropos of nothing, did anyone else catch that, while in the original timeline, Oceanic Flight 815 was said to be more than 1000 miles off course when it crashed on the island, but in the ATL it flew directly over the sunken island in a presumably uneventful flight?
I have been biting my tongue, but I cannot do so any longer.
I think this season has not gone well. I’m not worried so much about if question A gets answered or if mystery Z is resolved - I’m in it for the ride, not the destination.
But this season… it just bad all along. I don’t like the two new groups (the temple Others or Widmore’s latest crew). I don’t like Flocke. I don’t like how Ben is almost never seen. I don’t even care about the Jacob/Esau story, for it implies (or hell, states) a supernatural basis behind the plot which, to me, is mere hand-waving. I don’t like deus ex machina’s in Greek Lit, I don’t like them in the works of Peter F. Hamilton, and I don’t like them in Lost. They’re a cheap way to get yourself out of a sticky situation.
And I really, really, really, really… I mean, really, hated Jack breaking the lighthouse. The sheer stupidity/immaturity/“unrealisticness” of that move might have been the shark jumping scene that I hoped would never arrive.
There was, at one time, a large philosophical battle brewing between Locke and Jack that will now never be “resolved” in one way or the other. That also pisses me off. Faith vs Science, played out on national TV… until the writers got cold feet and decide to kill Locke.
Anyway… like I said, I’ve been holding it in. I’ve got more to say, but not the time to say it. 
Uh… this episode was OK. Sun and Jin’s are the second story (Kate’s is the other) where the ALT personas are decidedly not having a better time of it than in the original timeline.
I have been biting my tongue, but I cannot do so any longer.
I think this season has not gone well. I’m not worried so much about if question A gets answered or if mystery Z is resolved - I’m in it for the ride, not the destination. I’ve never expected all the mysteries to be resolved and won’t be put out by any one specific issue if it is not addressed.
But this season… it just bad all along. I don’t like the two new groups (the temple Others or Widmore’s latest crew). I don’t like Flocke. I don’t like how Ben is almost never seen. I don’t even care about the Jacob/Esau story, for it implies (or hell, states) a supernatural basis behind the plot which, to me, is mere hand-waving. I don’t like deus ex machina’s in Greek Lit, I don’t like them in the works of Peter F. Hamilton, and I don’t like them in Lost. They’re a cheap way to get yourself out of a sticky situation.
And I really, really, really, really… I mean, really, hated Jack breaking the lighthouse. The sheer stupidity/immaturity/“unrealisticness” of that move might have been the shark jumping scene that I hoped would never arrive.
There was, at one time, a large philosophical battle brewing between Locke and Jack that will now never be “resolved” in one way or the other. That also pisses me off. Faith vs Science, played out on national TV… until the writers got cold feet and decide to kill Locke.
Anyway… like I said, I’ve been holding it in. I’ve got more to say, but not the time to say it.
Uh… this episode was OK. Sun and Jin’s are the second story (Kate’s is the other) where the ALT personas are decidedly not having a better time of it than in the original timeline. That’s interesting… I guess.
I kinda feel like you, JohnT, but as long as I see more Sawyer and they give him a good story, I’m ok. All in all it’s been a great ride, for a TeeVee show.
Question - remind me, why did Sawyer, etc., not leave the island when they had a chance when they were they offered a chance to leave on that sub by the Dharma guys. They said they would stay for three weeks and stayed 3 years. was it ever explained why?
IIRC, they were hoping to get back to the present, as opposed to giving up and just living out their lives from the 70s on.
Again, showing the monumental stupidity of the characters. If I’m Sawyer and went back in time to a point 5 years before the beginnings of a 20 stock market boom, knowing all the World Series/Super Bowl/NCAA champions, plus I have no familial committments holding me back, I’ll be like:
"Hey, you going back on the sub? Here’s a wallet of cash - I want you to lay a grand each on Marquette in the NCAA’s, Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl, Portland to win the NBA Finals, and I want you to put the rest in a DJIA index fund. That’s not going to do much in a few years, but I want to get started early.
Oh, and if you can find a betting line, I’ll take Reagan in 1980."
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think at one point Sawyer even said something to that effect - “We’ll land in Ann Arbor and then we’ll go buy some Microsoft stock.” But then they decided to go back to the island instead, because… I don’t know, just because.
Because losing the ability to act rational is apparently one of the unspoken side effects of the islands spooky powers.
Wasn’t Kate captured and put on the sub? She then tried to convince Sawyer that they had to get back to the island, but he wasn’t having any of it. Then Juliet told him that they had to go back to help Jack, it was the right thing to do, and so they took over the sub and went back.
“Let’s go back to save Jack who, just very recently, turned his back on all of us in an effort to get his own butt off the island.”
“Yeah, that’s great! Let’s do it!”
“Let’s follow Locke who, just very recently, blew up the sub that could take us off the island!”
“Yeah, that’s great! Let’s do it!”
You guys are talking about different things. JohnT’s question is about when they had a chance to leave and just live out a regular life, which was three years before Jack and Kate showed up.
After Jack and Kate showed up they no longer had any opportunity to go live a regular life.
Great post, but I disagree with you on this point:
The answer seems to be a compromise: not blind faith, but…rational faith, for lack of a better word. Both Locke and Jack lost the battle. Locke’s “Don’t think, just do whatever “feels” right” thing* ended up getting him killed. That was the point of his death–utterly blind faith kills. Locke just mindlessly obeyed whatever anyone said without ever once putting any thought into it.
Jack, on the other hand, was destroyed when it turns out that there WERE things that couldn’t be explained by basic rational science–he got a bad fake beard, a terribly-acted percoset addiction and his life (personal and professional) were all ruined because he was so rigid.
I really think they did a good job on this.
Look at how many times he changed his motives with regards to the Hatch alone. First he let incest-brother be killed to open it. Then he had to push the button. Then he had to NOT push the button. Then he had to blow up the Hatch. Then he realized…oops. Bad idea. And that’s just a teeny-tiny bit of the stupid blind obedience he’s done in the course of the show.