LOST Revisited: Pre-Game for “316” (Feb 18)
We don’t know what went on after Jin left, and thanks to Julie, I’m pretty skeptical that the guy who lost his arm was really yelling to them from the cave. He seemed pretty calm, considering the sheer state of panic that gripped him about two seconds earlier. The Monster took on the form of Eko’s brother in Season Three, so we know that’s in the bag of tricks. Heck, if the Monster makes a habit of impersonating people, that explains a few mysterious appearances. When Harper Stanhope showed up to warn Juliet last season, and then promptly disappeared, maybe that was the Monster sending her on a mission. Or maybe the Monster uses existing bodies to get around like Jacob (apparently) does. And now this makes me wonder if the Monster and Jacob work in concert or against one another. Hey, remember the backgammon theme? White vs. Black, Good vs. Evil… Maybe Jacob (a man with white hair) and the Monster (made of black smoke) are the forces of Good and Evil who are at war. Come to think of it, we always hear about how the Monster doesn’t kill Good people. Let’s see: It ate the pilot, who seemed to be a very nice man. It tried to pull Locke into the cave. It killed Mr. Eko, a man of God who spent his life atoning for his sins. They all fall on the “Good” side of the equation. And when the Monster ran into Keamy, it smacked him around but left him alive. Maybe the Monster isn’t quite the moral arbiter that we’ve been led to believe.
So yeah, when we saw Rousseau and Robert pointing guns at one another, I think it’s safe to say that Rousseau was in the right. We don’t know what those other two guys did to get bullets in the head, but if Robert’s sudden “Isn’t the Monster awesome?” stance is any indication, they might not have been in their right minds either. Just because Rousseau’s crazy doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get her.
And of course, this calls into question the whole “security system” thing. If Robert was possessed or crazy, he can’t be believed. Basically, I forgot my biggest rule with Lost – The narrator is always unreliable. Don’t believe anything somebody says about what happened until you actually see it for yourself.
Sara brought up another interesting point. Charlotte referred to the “crazy old man” who told her to leave the Island, before indicating that the man was Daniel. At first, I wrote that off as the way that all kids think grown-ups are “old”. But Sara suggested that Daniel might actually have been an old man when he scared young Charlotte. What if Daniel is going to spend years jumping through time? I assumed that his appearance with the Dharma Initiative was from a past journey, and it’s clearly not from his current series of jumps, because at this point they’re shifting too fast for him to even get into a Dharma uniform. Maybe Daniel has to spend years and years making sure that everything happens the way it’s supposed to, like Dr. Sam Beckett (from Quantum Leap) or Booster Gold.
Next, Kelli brings up the idea that Jacob needs Locke to die so that he can use his body. That might be why it’s so important to get Locke’s body back to the Island. Maybe Jacob can’t use a body that dies on the Island, which would explain why he’s Christian and not any of the hundred or so Others, Lostaways, or Dharma Initative guys who’ve bought it on Island soil. Of course, this theory doesn’t allow for the possibility that Locke will be resurrected upon his return, so it makes me nervous.
Kelli also mentions that Biblical Jacob had a brother named Esau, and wonders if Island Jacob might have the same. Hey, maybe Jacob and Smokey are brothers, or whatever the nearest equivalent for disembodied consciousnesses is! And you know, Jacob is obviously intended to evoke the Biblical Jacob – remember “God will bless you as he blessed Jacob”? It’s worth thinking about, as Lost is not afraid to go for the Biblical allusions. Aside from “Christian Shephard”, there are a few characters with names from the Bible. We have John, Michael, Matthew (Abaddon), James, Daniel, and Benjamin. Jacob is particularly interesting, if we’re going to open that can of worms. Jacob, in addition to conning his blind father and taking his brother’s birthright, wrestled an angel. That left him with a permanent limp. Sure, Locke was in a wheelchair when he came to the Island, but beyond that time, he’s received at least three injuries that left him with a limp. He took a metal shard in the leg in Season One, this season Ethan shot him in the leg, and then later he broke his leg (with a bone sticking out!). So Locke’s role alludes to the Biblical Jacob, which is now very worrisome in light of the idea that Jacob might want to use him as a vessel.
And if you really want to worry, let’s go back to Julie. She wonders if Locke is Benry’s pawn in all of this. Benry has messed with his head from the very beginning, back when he was Henry Gale. After all, it seems like no matter what setback he suffers, Benry’s got a contingency plan. But what if those contingency plans were the real plans all along? Every time Locke seemingly had the upper hand, it was actually advancing Benry’s endgame. If this is true, than Locke died for nothing. Heck, maybe Benry knew Locke’s death would draw Desmond out, which would mean revenge time. This would be really upsetting, if everything Locke went through was just a sideshow for two rich guys who enjoy trying to destroy each other. This is an unpleasant thought. Luckily, the fact that Jacob approves of Locke’s mission seems to take things out of Benry’s hands a little bit. Or so I will tell myself.
This ties in with another one of Julie’s ideas from last season. (She’s this close to getting co-writer credit at this point…) She had the notion that Locke and Benry are brothers. Remember, both of them have mothers named “Emily”, and Lost almost never re-uses names. With all of the connections and history, they’ve been very careful to give everybody a unique first name. Other than Roger (Benry’s father and Claire’s psychic), I can’t think of any other reoccurring names. (The jury’s out on whether “Ellie” and “Eloise” are the same person, but they clearly want us to think that.) Locke’s mother was very young when she gave birth to him, after all. That certainly lends a more mythic aspect to the interaction between Locke and Benry. Heck, if we go with the idea that Jacob and the Monster are brothers of a sort, the Locke / Benry rivalry could be another example of the circularity of events on the Island. I love this idea, and I hope to see something happen with it in the near future.
One thing that I forgot to mention last week, even though I talked about it at length with my viewing group is this: When Locke met Jacob underground, Jacob remembered him. They seemed to be very far in the past, since the well didn’t even exist. So this wasn’t like when Locke met Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert before their actual first meeting. That means either Jacob is timeshifting with them, or else he’s outside of time. Jacob was, is, and will be. He’s like Dr. Manhattan, and that will make much more sense in a couple of weeks when everybody’s seen Watchmen. Maybe he experiences past, present, and future simultaneously, so that he’s always known Locke because he would one day meet him. What’s especially impressive is that he has Christian Shephard’s body in the past. Time means nothing to Jacob! He scoffs at your concept of linear time!
Thanks to everybody who contributed this week – bonus points all around! I’ll be back for the new episode, “316”. Hey, with that title, maybe it’s a good thing we started getting into the Biblical references.
