LOST: Pre-Game for “Everybody Loves Hugo”
This episode kind of convinced me that Widmore might be on the side of the angels – the warning to Desmond about his loved ones ceasing to exist echoes what both Dogen and Ilana said. The only thing that gives me pause is that last season, Ilana was directly opposed to Widmore. I guess it’s possible that you can want to save the timeline and still be an SOB, though. It seems pretty certain that he’s trying to stop Smokey, at least. And there is precedent for Jacob not keeping his team in on all aspects of the plan. Dogen, Richard, and Ilana all seem to have different pieces of the big picture, so it’s not out of the question that Widmore has a part to play. Of course, I’ve disliked Widmore for so long that it’s going to take pretty definitive proof before I can start to trust him.
And, you know, even if he’s part of Jacob’s plan, it’s not exactly a good guy move to drug and abduct your son-in-law and then blast him with electromagnetic radiation.
Here Comes the Judge!: OK, this is kind of big, and most of it comes from Spectacularry, so he and his commenters get all the credit here.
We all agree that Eloise acted pretty crazy in Timeline X, the way she yelled at Desmond and said that he was committing a “violation”. To my mind, that could suggest that she is Smokey. But there’s another possibility, and it hinges on the word “violation”.
Both Jacob and Smokey have mentioned “rules”. We have an idea as to what some of those rules are, and we know that there are loopholes. If there are rules, somebody had to determine those rules. And there has to be somebody who can enforce those rules. And maybe that person is Eloise.
Remember the first time we saw her? She explained to Desmond why he couldn’t propose to Penny. She explained destiny, and basically talked the time-jumping Desmond out of proposing. This has baffled me for a long time. It makes sense that she could take steps in the present to make sure the past works out – for example, she knows that she killed her son on the Island in the 70’s, so she takes steps later in her life to make sure that the past still happens that way. But Desmond’s proposal would have changed what was, from her perspective, the future. I get how you can preserve the past, but how does she know the future, much less take steps to preserve it? That speaks to her being more important than just the White Oracle.
But if she has a big picture understanding of the rules, and knows that without Desmond ending up on the Island, a whole bunch of candidates never get tested, then it makes more sense. And if the rule is that the remaining candidates have to leave the Island together, that’s why she makes sure that Jack and Benry recreate Flight 815 as closely as possible – they have to get every last candidate on the plane. (And as an aside, that’s why Locke didn’t have to get Walt on the plane. None of Walt’s last names show up on any of the candidate lists.)
Look at all of her advice and instruction in our timeline – it’s all been in the service of getting the Candidates to the Island. Per Smokey, the Candidates all have to leave together, so it sounds like she was enforcing the rules there. Is Eloise the Judge?
It’s also worth noting that Christian Shephard handled many of the same duties. He sent Locke to bring back the Candidates, he kept Michael alive long enough to make sure that the Candidates got off the freighter. And yet, he also separated Claire from Aaron. Again, we don’t know what the rules are, but much of what he’s done has been to keep the viable Candidates around so that they can choose a side.
But while our Eloise was patient and compassionate with Desmond, Eloise X was angry and insulting. Eloise is usually pretty understanding, while Smokey tends to get defensive and dramatic when he’s in danger of losing the upper hand. And without an Island, she doesn’t have rules to enforce anyway. If there isn’t an Island, Smokey wins. The Judge gets to knock off for the day once there’s a winner.
So here’s the thing – I can accept that Eloise is the Judge in our Timeline. I still think that she’s Smokey in Timeline X. Her panic at Desmond’s attempt to find Penny doesn’t really point to anything Island-related. It still seems to me like she’s trying to keep Desmond from unraveling Timeline X. I think there’s no Judge in Timeline X, since the game is over.
See, it appears that Smokey is the winner in both Timelines, but he doesn’t win until he gets off the Island, and that doesn’t happen until all the Candidates reject their job as the new Jacob. Locke and Sayid would seem to be out of the running, but there are still four out there who could take the job. In Timeline X, the Island itself is gone. Remember, the Island is the cork. Word choice is always important on Lost, and especially so this season. Jacob’s not the cork, the Island is – as long as there’s an Island, the game is still on. In Timeline X, Smokey is the undisputed champion.
Of course, and I may be shooting my own point down, Eloise X may just be exactly as concerned with protecting the sanctity of her timeline as our Eloise is. Her reaction doesn’t prove that she’s Smokey, but it does prove that Timeline X is fracturing around Desmond and the Lostaways.
So why is Eloise X, whoever she really is, so upset about the chance that Desmond is looking for Penny? Well, if Charlie can almost see the other side from a vision of Claire (who he knew for all of three months in our Timeline), a guy with Desmond’s unique abilities is going to blow the whole thing when he finds the woman he’s loved for years. And why is Desmond so happy at the end of the episode, both before and after Sayid abducts him? Why, he’s going to save the world, brotha.
The way that everybody has talked about the danger that Smokey represents to the world implies to me that Timeline X and our Timeline can’t co-exist. Remember, your loved ones will “cease to exist” – that makes it pretty clear that everything is just going to be gone. (And remember the anagram for “Donald Lawrence Reynolds” – “A cloned world nearly ends”.) Desmond is aware of the cracks in Timeline X. He wants the manifest for Flight 815, so he can “show them something”. Now, he’s certainly not going to track down all the people from Flight 815 just so he can remind them that Timeline X is awesome. Nope, he’s going to expose the fraud around them. And while Desmond, Charlie, and Faraday all got a glimpse of that other world when they saw the one they loved, let’s not forget that Desmond and Charlie really triggered their visions with near-death experiences. (Charlie saw Claire in a vision when he was choking on his heroin balloon, and Desmond first saw the other world when he was underwater.) Is Desmond going to go around and rough up the passengers until they have their own flashes? Because if he is, that could easily go for a whole season by itself. (“This week, Desmond dangles Arzt out a window!”)
But if all this is right, then what happens to the people who prefer Timeline X? Charlie has indicated that he’s supposed to be dead, but I think Boone or Steve or Gary Troup would prefer a fake world if it means they to be alive. Would Jack want his son to blink out of existence for the sake of a centuries-old rivalry? Could Sayid accept a world where Nadia is dead? There could really be a conflict between the people who want Timeline X to prevail vs. the people who want to fix things.
This is still bouncing around in my head, so I apologize if this is less productive than usual. I think the next episode or two will firm this up – tomorrow we get Hurley’s Timeline X episode and that means all the main characters have been covered. If there’s a time for things to fall apart, it’s after we’ve caught up with everybody.
As I said before, our good friend Larry Young kicked off most of this line of thinking, and I might have talked myself into circles just to avoid turning in a Pre-Game that would consist of nothing but me linking to him. And in addition to his regular analysis, he has a special report about eye color. I honestly didn’t notice it before, and I often still don’t until he points it out. But once you know it’s there, it’s really striking. Eye color changes on this show, sometimes within a scene! Check out his report, and it will give you one more thing to pay attention to. Between eye color and anagrams, you’ll be exhausted by the end of each episode!
All right, let’s take some time to get our wits about us and get ready for “Everybody Loves Hugo”!
