I suspect that watching this season with a checklist of questions you want answered is going to be very unsatisfying (and I mean “you” in a general way, not anyone specific in this thread, but I think it’s clear a lot of people are expecting Answered Questions to start rolling out). I’ve been on the ride this long, and I’m enjoying it so far (except for the Kate episode - blah), so at this point I’m up for anything. More buildings? Sure! New characters? Why not? Unexplained interrogation/torture? Sign me up! As long as it’s entertaining I honestly don’t care if we never find out what “the sickness” is or why the polar bear or if that bird said Charlie’s name or all the other zillions of questions. It’s all going to end up somewhere and there will be plenty of time after the finale to debate whether they did it right or not.
I LOVE the flash-sideways-es. That timeline is far more interesting than the Island at this point. I love getting to know these characters - different, but the same. I love how Jack always looks like he’s just about to remember something but can’t quite land on it, just perfect. Agreeing with whoever above said they sympathized with Jack - this is the first time I’ve really liked Jack in, well, pretty much the whole series.
I am guessing that’s the point. I think the flash-sideways is the way things were meant to be, and this season needs to show us how the struggle between Jacob and MIB relates to getting these people’s lives back on track (or how it caused them to get off-track to begin with). And why these seemingly godlike beings give a shit about a handful of messed-up people in L.A./Sydney/Korea/Iraq (etc.)
While typing that I thought of something - how do we know that Jacob/MIB are really in conflict? Maybe they just want it to appear that way so that the Island peoples are constantly made to choose sides and fight each other. Notice that nobody seems to know WHY they need to protect Jacob or run away from UnLocke or be in or out of the temple. Most of the time they have to scramble because some unnamed foe is about to attack (how many times have “they’re coming” been uttered in this show in a foreboding fashion?). It’s all about going to “where it’s safe,” but once they get there, they’re just as likely to get killed as where they were (case made very obvious by Claire’s taking Jin to “safety” in her crazy-hut). I suspect a “we have always been at war with Eastasia” sort of thing happening here, and the only way the Losties will triumph is to call BOTH Jacob and MIB out on their bullshit.
Not quite new: there have been several discussions here dealing with the “LA-X is the original, uncorrupted timeline” theory. I liked the idea initially, but it’s looking less and less likely, mainly because of the link earlier in this thread where the producers seemed to flat-out confirm that the bomb DID sink the island and result in the LA-X timeline. So apparently Juliet’s message from the grave (“It worked”) was accurate, and we’re watching two parallel but equally “real” timelines. One features Jack going batshit and breaking magic mirrors, and the other features Jack with a son and SNOOOOORE . . .
Well, he did smoke-monster all over Mr. Eko and smack him around on trees until he died. I suppose the good/bad-ness of Eko could be debated… But I liked Mr. Eko.
Why would that admission from the producers contradict that theory? The bomb went off in 1977. If the island was sank in 1977 all the developments in the alternate timeline would have begun 27 years before we see them happening. The alternate universe is the non-Jacob, non-MiB influenced version.
I loved Mr. Eko! I was pissed when they killed him off. Okay, scratch smokey being good then.
Also, it seems significant that they never showed Jack’s ex-wife in the parallel universe. Can there be any doubt that it will turn out to be Juliet? If it was going to be a new actress, they would have just shown her. All the other females are accounted for. Plus, Juliet is a doctor, and it just makes sense.
I would think that all of the names (which seem to be at every degree mark) would bring up imagery. Otherwise, why mark it with names? Perhaps the crossed out ones don’t work anymore, though?
It looks quite clear to me that “Horton” has a line through it.
“Wallace” also has a line through it. I get the feeling that since the whole thing was a ruse just to get Jack out there, to witness his name and the magic mirror, that the 108º was also unimportant. Jacob had to give Hurley a number, so why not give him the sum of all the candidates. Him and “Esau” seem to have a sense of humor that way.
Of course, I’d love it if Wallace turned out to be something interesting.* But I’m not holding my breath.
*We never learned Jacob’s last name… hmmmm? Jacob Wallace, perhaps?
When Jack encounters Kate during the expedition to the Lighthouse, they all seemed so comfortable on the Island that it made me think these guys are like “Lost All Stars”, returning to the Island for another round. Maybe we’re witnessing Heroes vs Villains.
I guess they tested Claire the same way they tested Sayid. Jack’s puzzlement at the appendectomy makes me think there is more interaction between the various time lines. It’s like there are competing time lines that are eventually going to coalesce into one coherent reality.
I don’t remember if it’s been said outright or just inferred, but it’s against the rules for him to kill a candidate or guardian (Jacob).
Mr. Eko spent most of his island time attempting to repent for his sins, but in the end he confronted Locke-ness and said that all the bad things he had done in his past life was out of a sense of survival and he wasn’t sorry for it. And then he got squished.
I was disappointed, he was a complex character and fun to watch. His exit from the show was unsatisfying, I wish they had found some way to keep him on the show.
I can’t really disagree with this. Other than, obviously the Losties are personally better off, but perhaps their personal sacrifice has some kind of global benefit.
Well… not entirely. He manipulated Ben into killing Jin. He impersonated Alex to manipulate Ben. He has Sawyer on his side now for who knows what cause. He beat up Richard. He’s in league with (read: influencing the infection of) screwed up super violent Claire and possible future screwed up super screwed up Sayid…
Ben yes, Sayid no. The pool wasn’t clear and didn’t heal Dogen…
That is probably what we’re supposed to wonder… I was going to try to justify this but… while Ben and the Others might have an excuse (being dicked over by lack of info from Jacob), it’s hard to see Jacob as having one. OTOH Xanatos gambit… given that his instructions to Hurley ended up having Jack undergoing a massive rethinking process… maybe he’s just really smart at manipulating people towards an end plan that is ultimately beneficial. OTOH manipulation, even with a noble goal is still… uspremely dickish… (see Supernatural)…
It’s obvious that the scene of him being out of breath from walking up stairs was scripted. In the scene with alt-Locke he seemed extremely well adjusted.
I think we’re supposed to start thinking the alt people are remembering the original universe…
I think this is just the correct bearing to reach the island safely…
I wasn’t snoring. I like that the alt-timeline features the characters seemingly resolving their major issues.
In case anyone forgot, the actor who played Eko left the show suddenly for personal reasons, much to the dismay of the writers.
If anyone really wants to shoehorn in the “MiB is really the good guy” idea, you could fanwank that he isn’t conscious or whatever while in smoke form, just running around all elemental rage without control or whatever. That’d tie in nicely with when he told Ben “I’m sorry you had to see me that way.”
The speculation that Jacob and the MiB aren’t really enemies goes against cannon. In addition to countless interviews with the writers that support the conflict being genuine, we saw the two of them alone swearing vengeance in last season’s finale. That scene can’t be reconciled with them not being enemies.
Latest EW nugget: The producers originally had two ideas, one is the flash-sideways and another is the island stuff. They couldn’t decide which one should be the final season. As in, they were either going to just have the flash-sideways be the entire season, or have the island stuff be the entire season. They couldn’t decide which way to go, and then someone suggested they do both. Eureka!
I personally read that to mean that they’re pulling this out of their ass, and it’s not a question of which mysteries will they answer, but rather which mysteries will they make up an answer for.
Along those lines, you can’t look at the deaths of the pilot (Matt Parkman on Heroes) or Mr. Eko as evidence that the smoke monster is evil because this all has a feel of retcon to it. Maybe they really did think of the smoke monster as a brainless security system when they wrote those episodes.
I would really love to read a book or blog or watch a pop-up video version of the series where they explain exactly what they were thinking while writing the various episodes. For example, while writing the pilot, exactly how much of the big picture did they have nailed down, and what was the big picture? Then by season 3, what had changed, etc…
Well, I haven’t given up on the idea yet. In fact I’ve been wondering if this means Jacob is evil, as Fenris suggests.
I’m not ready to abandon the idea of Jacob as good just yet. If we assign Jacob and the Man in Black to the traditional Good-Evil roles, then we could posit Jacob as God and Smokey as the Devil.
Now considering the conversation between the two of them at the end of last season, then Jacob looks like he’s trying to proove something. So - why would God screw up people’s lives just to make a philosophical point to the Devil? Does the name Job ring a bell.
Agreed. Kate is a murderer. And unlike Sawyer, she’s never once shown any remorse for her crimes. She’s just about the last person on earth I’d want raising my kid.
(Actually, Ben is probably the last. But Kate is second-to-last.)
I liked Eko too, but he refused to admit his sinful past. Of the other people the Smoke Monster’s killed, we don’t really know anything about the pilot or the French team (although I’m with the group that thinks they were suspiciously well armed for a scientific expedition) but the mercenaries were definitely bad. Jacob’s bodyguards also appear to be mercenaries, and hence have probably done plenty of bad things. As I’ve said above, Sawyer regrets his past actions, and this might be what saved him from the Smoke Monster.
There sure is a lot of Kate hate in this thread. Agreed that she’s annoying, but I don’t get the hate.
These quoted complaints, for example, don’t ring true. Of course she doesn’t feel remorse about murdering her abusive step-father; she feels it was totally justified. And it mostly was, as far as I recall. Also, it’s not clear she killed anyone in the flash-sideways universe, though she does seem to get off on being on a crime spree.
I barely remember the episode, but I think her friend died while she was escaping something or other. That wasn’t a murder, and she absolutely showed remorse.
Did Kate kill someone on the island without justification that I’m forgetting?
And finally, it’s kind of funny to imply that the last person a cold blooded murderer should want to raise her child is a cold blooded murderer.
David Wallace from The Office certainly was “broken” when last we saw him. He needs an alternate timeline where Michael Scott doesn’t drive him insane.
The writers are obviously going out of their way in withholding MiB/“Esau”/unLocke/Smokey’s name. Why? Because his name is someone we already know.
We also know that the psychic guy that told Claire not to have her baby raised by anyone other than herself, freaked the fuck out when he first felt the fetus’s presence. He sensed “evil”.
MiB told Sawyer that he was human once, just like him (Sawyer).
It’s been clear since season 1, that Claire’s baby is very important.
We know time travel is possible, and I have a gut feeling we’ll be seeing Faraday again.
So, who could this important baby grow up to be, one day travel back through time and forge an enemy in Jacob (for whatever reason that remains to be seen)? Aaron.
He also said he “wanted to go back home.” Home being his own body.
Now, he’s found his mom again, and wants his body back.
