I thought I saw that, too. My WAG, Jack was already mortally wounded so the smokifying did not stick and/or Jack’s motives were good and selfless as opposed to MIB and he had accepted his fate so the smokifying didn’t take.
Remember, the only one whose word we have on the “fate worse than death” outcome if you go into the cave is Crazy Foster Mom the Murderer who just wanted the boys to stay and protect the island, not exactly a trustworthy person. There were probably loopholes she either didn’t know about or didn’t tell them about.
Frankly, I think that it was how the audience viewed them, for the sake of the narrative. You don’t to smack the audience with new plot/character development when you’re trying to shut down.
Actually, I either forgot that, or missed it in the first place. When was that explanation made?
Never saw it, going either way. I’m just as happy that they didn’t try to show it, because some things are best left to the imagination.
Then again, Jacob inexplicably died by stabbing too, so that island healing power works great except, apparently, on the people most important to the island.
There could be a satisfying explanation for why the island didn’t heal Jacob or Jack or Jacob’s mom, for that matter. I’m not seeing it; anyone else want to take a crack at it?
You can’t tell which particular wound is worse than another just by looking at the bloodstain on the shirt on TV. Locke may have been very lucky and had his bullet push his intestines or whatever out of the way, Jack may have had his intestines sliced in half, or his stomach ruptured, or a major artery nicked, or whatever.
Maybe the island only heals people that it isn’t “done with” yet. Same reason certain people can’t die, like when Michael tried and failed to kill himself. Once your purpose on the island has been fulfilled, all bets are off.
But isn’t the agency of the island handled by the protector? Meaning it was Jacob who prevented Michael from killing himself on behalf of the island? Or is the island itself a conscious entity?
Well, we saw MIB get Smokified, so we know it’s possible. He was also pretty hurt.
I’m wondering if Mommy Dearest Smokified herself in order to destroy the encampment. There obviously was a Smoke Monster, since it was able to conjure up Claudia. But why would that Smoke Monster want to destroy the encampment?
My 2 pence worth
This echos a few ideas previously brought out in the thread.
The “fate worse than death” was being the island protector. Notice MD says “Thank you.” when killed by NoName
The smoke monster is a power of the guardian but is limited to the island. That how MD killed NoNames friends and got him out of the well. (“She broke my donkey wheel.”)
The guardian is to go into the well and absorb the smoke. MD would have explained this to Jacob is she didn’t have an unfortunate case of death. I don’t know why she didn’t explain it at the time of the quickening or whatever that ceremony was. Since NoName was not the guardian, it released ScHmoky McSchmokerson.
3a) What was the smoke? The best I can think of is rational evil. Notice that a lot of the “evil” acts of the Losties were rationalized away. The evil MD did was very reasoned. Kill the mom so she has her heirs, kill the villagers to stop NoName. If it were reduced down to a moral philosophy I would say the evil inherent in Utilitarianism. I think this explains why those particular “broken” people were chosen as candidates. They had the best balance of utilitarian evil whereas others like Ben and Widmore were scratched off the list when they were found to be out of balance.
3b) So what’s the deal with getting off the island? Schmoky could only leave by destroying the island and the only way to do that would release shall we say irrational evil - evil for evil sake like Hitlerish evil. I still think the whole I need to leave the island was a carryover from NoName’s soul but the net effect was the same, the light would be put out.
What is in the cave? Holy water or it’s equivalent to stopper in the evil. I think that smoky was there after Flocke died but remember that it is a CONTROLLED evil. We wouldn’t see it unless Jack used it and he was ready to die anyways. Remember how it only ends once? Because the Guardian and Schmoky being separate was an aberation and when it ends, they are joined like they should be.
The healing takes time. What about the people in the temple? The other people in the graveyard? And I didn’t see the first few season but I don’t imagine Locke was able to walk IMMEDIATLY after the crash. If you die before you can get healed, you die. Simple as that.
It got people to think and talk and feel something. Isn’t that what art is supposed to do?
There is a part of me that is miffed the Sci-fi aspects of the show did not get a grand resolution but what was done was done well enough I am willing to over look it.
He was able to walk immediately after the crash; he regained consciousness able to walk. That’s why nobody realized he had been a paraplegic before the crash.
According to this article by Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune, the final images of the wreckage over the end credits were added by ABC Execs, not the producers, and aren’t supposed to mean anything. They were just supposed to be used to transition to local newscasts.
Yes. He may not have believed it, but Ben explicitly told him that the Island had kept his tumor at bay until he did something wrong* and now the Island isn’t healing him any more. Also, Ben, after open-back surgery on his spinal column, was up and around in just a few days and Jack saw that.
*Since he was following Jacob’s explicit instructions, conveyed via the list he got from Richard, I’ll be damned if I know what he did wrong.
A) Locke was able to walk as soon as he regained consciousness. Our first shot of Locke is him wiggling his toes and then standing up.
B) Ben shot Locke in the gut from point-blank range at the Dharma mass grave and Locke was up and around within an hour or so (after Walt’s ghost said he still had work to do*). He should have been insta-dead. If Locke survived that, there’s absolutely no reason that Jack shouldn’t have been able to survive a stab wound in the side.
*Which was never explained. And John really didn’t have work to do.
I have following LOST faithfully since the beginning. I have never missed a show and I lurk at a LOST fan site. This has been the only show I watch on a regular basis.
I really really like the finale. I think wrapping up a show like this is incredibly hard, and I though it highly unlikely they’d get it just right.
They got it just right.
I feel enough was answered for me to be satisfied, and I appreciated the emphasis on the characters, because they are what has made me tune in all this time.
I think it was simply that with his last bit of power, he scanned the Earth and tuned into a bukkake video at just the right moment.
I seem to recall Rose revealing that she knew in the episode where we discover she had cancer. One of the better episodes, and one which was still highly relevant even in the finale.
I wonder if the fact that Jack didn’t “smoke out” have anything to do with the fact that Flocke could no longer smoke up either. Maybe uncorking the light sucked away the smoke powers altogether.
