LOST Revisited: 6-16 “What They Died For”
David’s staying with Jack and preparing for his big concert. Apparently, his mom will also be there, and it’s time to tell us who it is, already. And I had forgotten that Claire was staying with them, but there she is. Jack gets a call from Oceanic – they found his father’s coffin. Of courts it’s actually Desmond pulling the strings again. It’s always exciting when Desmond X shows up – I can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeve.
I have to say, I like the idea that Christian’s body never turns up in either Timeline. I feel like that’s an important part of the Lost mythos, even if I can’t quite put my finger on why. I think it’s maybe because it’s such a literal lack of closure. Jack lost his father, and then the airline did too.
On the Beach of Sadness, Jack stitches up Kate, just like she had to sew him up in the pilot. Also, the bullet went straight through, just like when Benry shot Locke. Kate won’t stop making things sadder, by talking about Ji Yeon and how Jin never met her, and thanks for reminding me, lady.
Sawyer looks out over the ocean as the lifejackets wash up. I’ve mentioned this before, but remember Jacob’s line to Hurley about how sometimes you just have to let people stare at the ocean for a while. That came up again last week with Silas, and that’s what Rose spent the first few episodes doing. The Island has a proud tradition of people staring at the Ocean and trying to figure out their lives. Finally, Jack decides it’s time to go find Desmond.
In Timeline X, Locke returns to work. Only Desmond is watching from his car. And when he revs the engine, it’s hard not to get a dark laugh over the idea that he’s going to run the poor guy over. Again. But Benry gets in the way, and it’s pretty hilarious to see our favorite megalomaniac threaten Desmond with a citizen’s arrest. Desmond gets out of the car to pound on Benry, which causes Benry to flash on the other world. Specifically, the time Desmond pounded on him. Boy, it’s either love or violence that gets you to the truth, isn’t it? Desmond tells him that he’s not there to hurt Locke – he’s there to tell him to let go. And that’s what Jack X told Locke, too. That’s good advice for most of the Lostaways, really. I think particularly for Sawyer, who is going to let guilt destroy him.
Hey, it’s Benry, Richard, and Miles! It’s been ages! Benry leads them to New Otherton, and their dialogue is really funny. Miles will always make me laugh. Obviously, the village isn’t a good place for Miles to be, with all the deaths there. He really seems to get a strong vibe when passing the spot where Richard buried Alex. Notably, we don’t get to find out what he heard. You just know that’s going to come up before the end.
Benry has plenty of C4 in his secret room, and he even mentions that it’s where he could go to summon the monster “Before I realized he was summoning me”. And I have to wonder if and when he’d ever summoned Smokey before. I mean, obviously in the big gunfight with Keamy, but had he ever let Smokey loose like that on any other occasions? Also, Benry has a lot of C4. That guy is ready to blow up just about everything.
They hear a noise, and it turns out Island Tina Fey and Widmore caught up to them. It’s really weird to see Widmore in the village, isn’t it? I mean, he lived there at one time, but it’s just so incongruous. Widmore tells ITF to sink the outrigger before Look-a-Locke gets there. (By the way, we’re very close to Nickname Critical Mass here, with Benry, Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert, and Island Tina Fey all in the same scene and with Look-a-Locke approaching.) Widmore reveals how he returned to the Island – Jacob invited him. After the freighter explosion, Jacob appeared to Widmore with instructions. That’s surprising to me – I really didn’t see Jacob going anywhere near Widmore.
In Timeline X, Benry’s getting checked out by a doctor, and Locke comes to visit. I like the little touch that they seem to like one another, yet they don’t appear to know each other’s first names. Benry tells Locke about Desmond and what he saw, he also tells Locke that he needs to let go. How much does Benry know about his other life? We’ll see later that Hurley seems pretty well caught up. But Hurley’s kind of the same guy in either world. How does Dr. Linus even reconcile himself with Benry? That would just be awful.
Desmond heads to the police station and asks to see some detectives. Of course it’s our favorite team of Sawyer and Miles. (Miles also references the benefit concert, which I think he mentioned in a previous episode. That has to be where David Shephard is going to play, right?) In another scene I find funnier than I should, Desmond describes his misdeeds and turns himself in. Now, I thought that was a crazy move on his part. This is going to drastically limit his mobility, after all. But Desmond’s way ahead of the game. What’s important now is that he ends up in the holding cells with Sayid (Sayid!) and Kate.
Back on the Island, you know, why didn’t Look-a-Locke kill Desmond himself? Like Jack says, maybe he can’t. Or maybe he’s afraid of Desmond. That’s certainly the impression I got, at least. Jack leads the group to Desmond’s well, and Sawyer is coming to grips with what happened – “I killed them, didn’t I?” To Jack’s credit, he puts all the blame on Look-a-Locke. Not that Sawyer will ever let himself believe that, of course.
Hurley spots Young Jacob, who demands the ashes that he took from Ilana. The kid runs off with the ashes, and Hurley gives chase. You know it’s a bad day when you’re chasing a mystery boy through the jungle to get back a sack of cremains. And then Hurley finds the Jacob we know and…. Love? Pity? I’m not sure how I feel about him, but it makes me happy to see him right now. He sends Hurley to bring back the rest of his group, because “We’re very close to the end”. Dude, no kidding.
Look-a-Locke arrives at the docks, and he spots the other outrigger. We get a shot of some cases that Widmore and Island Tina Fey brought along. No indication of what’s in there, but somebody in my viewing group suggested it was their DJ equipment. We’re getting slap-happy now. Benry announces that he’s not going to hide. We’ve known him for long enough to be suspicious about this. Miles is not crazy, and decides to run. Benry takes one of his walkie-talkies, which certainly seems important. Widmore and ITF take to the secret room, and Richard decides to go out there and talk to him – he thinks he can buy them some time.
Smokey’s not interested talking, as he shows up in his smoke form and just sends Richard flying. We don’t see him land or hear the proverbial sickening thud, though. I assume Richard’s still among the living, but there’s no telling where he is or what kind of condition he’s in right now. And you can tell Benry’s going into full-villain mode, because he just pulls up a chair to wait. Look-a-Locke finally appears and sits down next to him. And he has a very large knife. He tells Benry that “I need you to kill some people for me”, which you have to admit, fit in with his interests and skill set. He promises Benry that once he leaves, Benry can have the Island to himself. So Benry responds by telling him where Widmore is.
It’s kind of frustrating, after Benry’s big redemptive moment with Ilana. This is either a case where he fooled the viewers yet again, or he might have a larger plan at work here. I think that walkie-talkie is important for reasons that I’ll get to later. However, even if Benry is actually trying to do the right thing, he can’t pass up the chance to ruin things for Widmore.
Benry X is at school, wearing a sling. Alex says he looks like Napoleon – and you’ll remember that Benry was teaching a lesson on that very topic in “Dr. Linus”. Also, remember that Napoleon was a guy who was exiled to an Island. Jacob and Smokey can probably relate. Alex’s mom is picking her up, and sure enough, it’s Rousseau! That shouldn’t be a surprise, but there was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about how they weren’t able to work around her schedule. I didn’t think we were ever going to see her again. They invite Benry for dinner, even joking about kidnapping him. Hee. It’s way less funny when your daughter is the victim of kidnapping, right Rousseau?
After dinner, Rousseau mentions to Benry that he’s the “closest thing to a father that (Alex) has ever had”. Exactly the way that Ilana described Jacob. And if he has a clear picture of his Island life at this point, this has to be just killing him.
Back on the Island, Benry leads Look-a-Locke to Widmore and Island Tina Fey. Widmore tells ITF not to say anything, so Look-a-Locke cuts her throat. If she’s not going to talk, she’s not serving any purpose. So long, Island Tina Fey. I always feel bad for those characters who were really just doing their job. The poor woman was a geophysicist who ended up far outside her wheelhouse.
Look-a-Locke then threatens Widmore – “The first thing I’m going to do is kill your daughter”. Penny! So Widmore cave and explains that he brought Desmond to the Island as a “measure of last resort”. Finally, Widmore whispers to Look-a-Locke, which is clearly just there to screw with us. Though you could make the case that neither of them wants Benry to hear the specifics. That’s probably a good instinct, since Benry guns down Widmore where he stands. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter”.
Charles Widmore – I spent years convinced that you were evil. Not it looks like you weren’t, but you were still kind of jerk. Our relationship has been complicated.
I’m still allowing for some possibility that Benry has a plan here, but it’s not like he could pass up the chance to kill Widmore. I really have no idea where he’s going with this, and that’s what I love about Benry.
Hurley brings the Lostaways back to Jacob, and in a really good joke, he assumes they can’t see him. Nope, they’re all looking right at him. Once the fire goes out, he’ll be gone for good, so he has a lot of information to pass along. He’s going to tell them what their friends died for, and everything that they need to know about protecting the Island.
In Timeline X, Locke comes to see Jack. We see a photo of Jack, David, and Christian and this is the first time I’ve really thought about the fact that David lost his grandfather. It’s hard to think of Christian as anything other than Jack’s father, you know? Locke recounts recent events, right down to the line about helping him let go. What’s cool is that they’re in basic agreement over what should happen (further surgery to repair Locke’s legs and spine), but not why. It’s the old Man of Science/Man of Faith debate, which the two taking their familiar roles. But unlike our Timeline, it’s not really adversarial.
Back at the campfire, Jacob admits that he made a mistake, and that he’s responsible for what happened to Smokey. He makes a strong statement here when Sawyer demands to know why Jacob thought he could interfere with their lives. Jacob comes right out and says that none of them were happy. They all felt alone and miserable, just like him. This does lead me to wonder about the people on Flight 815 who weren’t candidates, though. Some of them might have actually been happy only to end up losing the life that they enjoyed. I guess it’s all a matter of the good of the many vs. the needs of the few.
And this is one of my favorite bits of the episode. Kate asks why she’s not on the list. Because she became a mother. Jacob didn’t want to leave Aaron a motherless child. But “It’s just a line of chalk on a wall. The job’s yours if you want it”. That is so awesome. It’s a new perspective on those names – they might not have been eliminated. Jacob might just have decided not to take them from a loved one. I love this idea. Also, that would indicate that “23 – Kwon” was Jin after all. Sun, too, was a mother. (Jin was technically a father, but he wasn’t raising a child.)
Jack accepts the responsibility of protecting the Island. This is another thing that I loved. It’s hard to imagine it would have been anyone other than Jack, but look at it in terms of his character arc. He’s taking the biggest leap of faith that we’ve seen on this show and devoting his life to the Island, an Island which he never loved the way Locke or Benry did.
It could only be Jack, though. Not because he’s the star, but because he is the guy who takes responsibility. He wants to fix things, he wants to protect. Of course, it’s hard to imagine him living like Jacob – Jack gets involved. If he had been Jacob when Flight 815 crashed, the show would have lasted about twenty minutes. By the first night, he’d be showing up on the beach, explaining everything, then giving out advice. Sawyer has a good line her – “I thought that guy had a God complex before…”
Jacob directs Jack to the Heart of the Island, which he’d never seen before. But now he’ll be able to find it. Don’t you love Island Geography? Sometimes things just aren’t there unless you’ve been told that they are. Jacob performs the Communion with water from the spring. Hey, that ties into what I said in the Pre-Game almost exactly – it’s the Protestant version of Communion where the sacrament itself is what imparts meaning, and not the individual ingredients. Jacob concludes by telling Jack, “Now you’re like me”. Note that what he says is much less creepy than Fake Mom’s “Now you and I are the same”.
In Timeline X, Kate tries one last time to talk Sawyer into letting her go. That might be a little tough to pull off. She, Desmond, and Sayid are loaded into the prison transport where they’re getting kicked up to County. As they ride, Desmond talks about how he’ll get them out, as long as they promise to do something. I like the way they’re both humoring the crazy guy, but as soon as they agree, the truck stops. Hee. The driver who’s in on the plan is none other than Ana-Lucia, and I really didn’t expect to see her back again. Hurley drives up and gives Ana-Lucia her bribe, so clearly she’s a bad cop here. (As opposed to our version who gunned down a man in revenge.) I don’t know how she’s going to account for losing three prisoners, but she’s never been good at the long game. I like that Hurley recognizes her from the Island – he’s totally caught up with the other world. Desmond sends Sayid off with Hurley, and presents Kate with a little black dress – the two of them will be going to a concert. Where they’ll see Miles and Jack and who knows who else, no doubt.
Finally, Look-a-Locke and Benry find the well, only to see that Desmond is gone. There’s a rope hanging over the side, so it looks like they took the time to spring him before going off for Jack’s baptism. Look-a-Locke explains that Desmond was a fail-safe – Jacob’s last resort. If all the Candidates die, Desmond is the last chance to keep Smokey on the Island. But Look-a-Locke says he’s going to use Desmond to do the one thing he can’t do by himself – he’s going to destroy the Island.
A couple of points, since this is running long. Per Crazy Mom, if the Light goes out on the Island, it goes out everywhere. Something tells me the Island shouldn’t be destroyed. Also, I can’t help but think Benry has a backup plan. Especially now that he’s not getting the Island. See, I think he’s aware of the “You have to kill him before he speaks to you” rule. With the walkie-talkie, he has a way to contact the one guy to whom Look-a-Locke hasn’t spoken – Miles. I just really want Benry to do the right thing before it’s all over.
And this might just be nerves, but didn’t it seem like the transfer of power was a little too easy? It’s weird to have Jack’s Communion before the final episode. I’m getting a little worried, because I don’t think it’s going to be as open and shut as it looked tonight.
Just so you know, the final Pre-Game should be going up this weekend, in spunkybean’s first-ever weekend post. In the meantime, let me know what you think as we come to the end. As ever, you can post in the comments, you can e-mail me at ejfeddes@spunkybean.com or you can find me on Facebook. How are you preparing for the finale? Are you still in denial? What forgotten characters do you hope to see before it’s all over? We’re not getting through this without a support group. That much is clear.
