Ellie reads through Faraday’s journal, and is shocked to see her own handwriting. Widmore brings his new prisoners down to the camp, and wonders why Dharma’s hostility has been increasing lately. Ellie, however, at least has figured out that whoever these folks are, they aren’t Dharma.
LOST Revisited: Season 5, “Follow the Leader”
Jump ahead 30 years, to where the modern-day Others are hanging out. Hey, we haven’t seen them all season. At least, not in the present. Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert is building a ship in a bottle, which is really the kind of hobby that only a guy who’s immortal should have. Locke shows up in the camp, bringing the gift of a dead boar. They’re excited to see him, because Locke disappeared on them three years ago.
Locke needs to take Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert on an errand, and then a trip to see Jacob. He notes that something’s different about Locke, and Locke explains “I have a purpose now”. Sun brings Richard (Since he plays a key role in two eras this week, I won’t be using his extra long nickname every single time he appears. I need to sleep.) the picture from 1977, and asks if he remembers her friends. Oh, he remembers them all right, because “he watched them all die”. Awkward. By the way, at this point, we haven’t seen Richard meet Jack, Hurley, or Jin. He never met them in the present, and he only met Kate in 1977, before he would have seen her die. So there isn’t a point in the series where Richard met somebody he’d already seen die.
Locke takes a minute to try and reassure Sun before setting off with Richard and Benry. Benry’s great in this episode, because Smokey scared him straight, but he really wants to kill Locke throughout this whole thing.
Back in 1977, Jack and Kate get roughed up a little more in Ellie’s tent. When they’re alone, Kate asks Jack about his obsession with finding the bomb. Jack wants to do whatever it takes to make sure that their flight never crashes. Now, Kate never mentions that if that happens (or, I guess, doesn’t happen) she goes to jail for a very long time, but that’s clearly a big problem for her. She even tries to get Jack to admit that it hasn’t been all misery, but Jack’s not going for it.
Ellie asks them about the journal, and explains that she remembers meeting him back in the 50’s. He told her to bury the bomb, and then he disappeared. Jack promises that there’s a way “to take it all back”. Tellingly, when Ellie asks Kate if he knows what he’s doing, she answers “he thinks he does”. Nice. Ellie reveals that Dharma built their village over the buried bomb. Wow, that was some poor city planning on their part.
Speaking of Dharma, Radzinsky has Sawyer and Juliet tied up, and he’s absolutely whaling on Sawyer. Horace tries to be the voice of reason, but Radzinsky is still mad that somebody saw his model, and he’s taking it out on Sawyer. But Sawyer’s been tortured by Sayid – Radzinsky isn’t going to make him crack. At least, until Phil slugs Juilet. Oooh, he is so going to die before the season is over. At this point, a Dharma meathead presents evidence that two of the troublemakers were added to the manifest at the last minute, and there’s still one Hugo Reyes unaccounted for.
Cut to Hurley, packing food as fast as he can. He takes his sack out to meet Jin and Miles, and Miles has decided that they need to make a run for it. No rescue mission for Miles! Dr. Marvin Candle intercepts them, and wants to know the truth about them. And in the funniest scene in five seasons, Hurley tries to convince him that he isn’t from the future. In doing so, he claims to be 46 years old, denies the existence of the Korean War, and has no idea who the President is. So, he just admits that he’s from the future. Ha! You know what’s really great? He was worried about getting tripped up on the President question when they first got to the past, and he didn’t actually take the time to learn the answer. I love Hurley. Anyway, Miles confirms that Faraday is probably right, and they should evacuate the Island.
In a quick scene, Ellie agrees to take Kate, Richard, and Jack to the bomb. At this point, Jack learns that the guy who beat him up is Charles Widmore. Jack’s heard that name, and knows he’s trouble, but he’s never met him before.
Back in the present, Richard tries to dissuade Locke from going to see Jacob. “That’s not how this works.” Locke, however, has made up his mind. But first he brings them to the Nigerian drug plane and does something awesome. He tells Richard that a man who’s been shot is going to come out of the jungle, and Richard has to treat him and give him advice. Remember when Locke got shot by Ethan at the beginning of the season? And then there was a timejump, and Richard showed up to treat him and tell him that he needed to die. And why did Richard do that? Because Locke told him what to say and do. And yes, we see that same scene again, this time with new context. Just like on Brisco County when I was young and full of potential.
So Locke made a side-trip to make sure that what happened, happened. He’s following the same rules as White Oracle right now. And since there was no context for him when this moment originally happened, how did he know that this was the exact moment when it happened? The Island told him! Neat! Locke knows what’s going on know, and seems to have this big-picture knowledge, again, like White Oracle.
Benry is only partially impressed, because if Locke were that great, he wouldn’t need Richard to take him to Jacob. Locke taunts Benry and confirms that Benry has never once seen Jacob. Also, the Island doesn’t tell Benry anything. Advantage: Locke!
In 1977, Dr. Marvin Candle pushes for evacuation. Horace agrees, but Radzinsky decides that he’s in charge, and what he wants to do is punch Sawyer some more. You know, it’s a little comforting to know that Radzinsky’s going to end up eating a bullet in the future. He’s got it coming. Finally, Sawyer makes a deal to tell them whatever they want to know, as long as he and Juliet get on that sub. And what they want to know is how to find the Hostiles.
Ellie brings her little group, which now includes a nameless Other who’s keeping an eye on the prisoners. They have to swim through an underwater passage to get to a tunnel, and at this point, Kate wants out. This is entirely reasonable. Not only is Jack trying to send her to prison for life, but he’s trying to do so by detonating an atomic bomb. There is no part of that plan that’s any good. Also, he might collapse the space-time continuum. The nameless Other pulls a gun on Kate, and when we hear two shots ring out, it’s easy to assume the worst. Instead, it’s a hidden Sayid ending the standoff. Bye, nameless Other!
Now, Sayid thinks that young Benry is dead and that they’re stuck in the past anyway, and he’s horrified that Kate actually saved him. Kate’s taking the moral stance that shooting children and detonating hydrogen bombs are not good things to do. And Sayid has a good point at first, too. It’s the old time travel conundrum. If you go back in time to kill your father before you’re conceived, you were never born and thus couldn’t kill your father, and thus you were born after all. So if they prevent Flight 815 from crashing, then they never got to the Island to detonate the bomb, and Flight 815 still crashed. Jack isn’t thinking this through. Kate tells Jack that all his talk of destiny makes him sound like Locke, and she leaves him.
Miles and the rest watch as the women and children are loaded onto the Dharma sub. This includes young Charlotte and Baby Miles. Of course, this also means that everything they’re doing is so far resulting in things turning out exactly the way that they did. Then, they see Sawyer and Juliet. These two actually seem at peace with the idea of starting a new life. Although I was pretty sure that Sawyer wasn’t actually going to get in the sub. I pictured him jumping and staying behind to try and fix things.
Richard, Jack, Ellie, and Sayid go for a swim and surface in the tunnels. Remember back when the Tail Section claimed that the Others “didn’t leave footprints”, and we thought it was because they used tunnels to travel across the Island. We were right! It also seems that Smokey uses the tunnels as well, which would certainly make me nervous about using them for day trips.
Back in the present, Locke and Co. return to camp. He wants to set out for Jacob’s cabin right away, but first he wants to address everybody. Richard mentions that there’s a group at the temple, and that’s where Benry ordered them to go last season. I think we’re building up to a temple-based finale.
“You’ve all been accepting orders from a man named Jacob.” Oh, Locke is stirring the pot. He says that they’ve never seen Jacob, and they deserve to, if they’re supposed to follow him. And so, Locke announces that the whole camp is heading for Jacob’s cabin. Richard and Benry agree that this could be trouble, and you have to admit, Richard has had a rough time of it with his chosen leaders. Widmore had to be banished, Benry is Benry, and Locke is leading a march to Jacob’s cabin. How much longer until Richard just decides to be the leader on his own?
In the submarine, Sawyer and Juliet have a really sweet scene where they proclaim their love. This is really well-done, and then they bring in one last exile – Kate. Old Third Wheel Austin is at it again. Hee. The amount of time they spent showing the submarine leave had me convinced that it was going to explode or something, but it seems to leave without incident. But, you know, check back next week.
In the tunnels, Sayid confesses to Jack that he doesn’t trust Ellie. After all, in her future life as White Oracle, she’s the one who sends them back to the Island. That doesn’t impress Sayid as a great plan. And then, they reach the hydrogen bomb. Now what? I love Jack’s reaction here, because it certainly seems like it’s just sinking in that he doesn’t actually know what to do here.
Finally, it’s back to 2008. As the Others begin their pilgrimage, Benry goes all prison snitch and tells Locke that Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert isn’t thrilled about Locke’s plan. Locke acknowledges that he doesn’t think Jacob can reunite him with the other Lostaways, and doesn’t care if he can. Now, Locke wants to meet Jacob because “I’m going to kill him”.
Wow! I was not expecting to end on that note. For what it’s worth, the one thing Locke heard in Jacob’s cabin was “Help me”. What if Jacob is trying to die? Maybe, as spunkybuddy Larry Young suggests, Jacob is smeared across the timestream and he just wants to die rather than continue that existence forever. The Island is telling Locke things now, and Smokey wants his safety assured. So that means either Jacob is not the figure of light that we believed, or Jacob actually wants to die.
This finale? Going to be awesome!
