SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “The Package”

Love Expansion – Beyond Jack


Well, it’s official: I’ve fallen in love with Benjamin Linus. It was bound to happen – I’ve been strangely enamored with him ever since I saw Michael Emerson on interviews on the TV, where I discovered that he, as a (non-Ben) person, is not creepy at all and therefore is a brilliant actor. Furthermore, I also learned that he is normally a comic actor, and I have a thing for funny men. Finally, after Ben’s emotional breakthrough in “Dr. Linus,” where he turned good, falling in love with him was inevitable, so now it’s happened. I love Ben.

The New Reality/Flash-Sideways

I’ve been discussing whether our characters’ lives have improved, gotten worse, or remained the same in new reality/flash sideways compared to the reality we are familiar with. The new reality has been generally good to most of them. In “The Package,” this week’s episode of Lost, we saw Jin and Sun’s new lives. Thus far, it looks like their lives are worse in the new reality. They are not married, despite being in love and despite being destined to be together. Jin is Sun’s much-needed bodyguard, and creepy, evil people are trying to kill him because of his romantic relationship with Sun. Hopefully things will improve for them, but at the moment, things are looking rather dire. Despite their struggles, however, the one thing they have that might be a sign of improvement in the new reality is that Sun and Jin are together. In the reality we are familiar with, they’ve spent quite some time trying to reunite, so far unsuccessfully. Destiny is trying to keep them apart in one way or another in both realities. Perhaps they are destined to be lovers torn apart by Destiny. Destiny is confused.

I’m rather irritated by the Lost promoting people. The Lost Myface (Facebook) fan page misled me to believe that we would see whether Sun and Jin reunite and we would learn which Kwon is the candidate. None of that happened, unless they are suggesting that Sun and Jin will never reunite and that Jin is the candidate since in the new reality Sun is not a Kwon (since they are not married in the new reality, though she is pregnant – that slut hahaha).

As I watched this episode, I began to consider another possibility for what the new reality/flash-sideways might be. Previously, I suggested that it’s what happens after the new Jacob, who I believe will be Hurley, takes over. However, I think it might be possible that there might not be a new Jacob. Perhaps Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Maybe Man in Black will succeed in getting all the candidates gathered and off the island. After all, Real John Locke/Jeremy Bentham was able to get them all back onto the island. If Fake John Locke manages this, which he obviously wants to because if there’s no one to take over for Jacob, then he can be liberated from the island and roam free, then perhaps the new reality is a reality without a Jacob. If this is the case, then it could suggest that either Jacob is evil after all, Jacob was lying about the evil nature of Man in Black and about the purpose of the island as the cork in Evil’s bottle, or that Jacob and Man in Black are less powerful than we thought.

The new reality/flash-sideways is not a world imbued with Evil, particularly since most of the characters we’ve seen have better lives in the new reality than they do in the reality we are familiar with. However, perhaps those improvements are subjective; perhaps I simply see things optimistically. I’ve discussed previously the rose-colored view of the new reality, where Sayid is morally good even if he can’t accept it, Real John Locke accepts his disability and has more time with his love, Jack begins to improve his relationship with the son he doesn’t have in the reality we’re familiar with, Kate’s good core still drives her, Sawyer chose law enforcement rather than con artistry, Jin and Sun are together, at least physically, and Ben doesn’t need power and saves rather than sacrifices Alex. It is possible to view the new reality as some form of Hell, where Sayid’s guilt keeps him apart from his love, Real John Locke is disabled, Jack has become his father in that his son fears him, Kate is constantly on the run, Sawyer is plagued with the need for revenge, Jin might be murdered for his affair with his soul mate Sun, and Ben lacks power and confidence. Despite these possibilities, I am still leaning toward my previous Hurley-centric, Jacob is Good though Flawed, Man-in-Black is Evil predictions. After all, there is no evidence thus far that Hurley could be in Hell in the new reality.

Is Widmore Good or Evil?

Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking, and Benjamin Linus have a lot in common. Each has been leader of the Others at some point, and therefore each has served under Jacob. If one is to assume that Jacob is Good, as I do for the most part, then one can also assume that Widmore, Eloise, and Ben are generally Good. However, they all possess some degree of evilness, and they have all, at one time, been consumed by power. They have all committed evil acts in the name of Jacob and, in their minds, to protect the Island. Assuming that Jacob is Good, they have all done evil things in the name of something good, and for the purpose of protecting the world from true Evil, assuming Jacob wasn’t lying about the purpose of the Island. Both Ben and Eloise sacrificed their daughter (Alex Rousseau Linus) and son (Daniel Faraday) respectively in the name of Jacob. Ben and Widmore have clearly demonstrated their unhealthy need for power, although Ben has overcome this Evil attribute.

We don’t know very much about Charles Widmore, nor do we know much about Eloise Hawking; however, I’m more interested in Widmore right now. We know that he hates Ben, and we can imagine that probably results from some big usurping that Ben must have done to get his job as Leader of the Others. Alternatively, perhaps his take-over was legitimate. When it looked like Real John Locke was going to take over as the new leader, Ben understood that it was what the Island and Jacob wanted, but he seemed rather jealous and loathsome of Real John Locke because, with a legitimate take-over comes the necessity to relinquish control and power. Ben overcame this eventually; however, it seems that Widmore has not. It’s interesting to see all these former enemies uniting against the common enemy of the Evil Incarnate that is The Smoke Monster/Fake John Locke/Man in Black.

The title of this episode, “The Package,” sheds light on one of the evil things Charles Widmore has done, presumably for Good purpose. He has drugged and transported Desmond, his package, back to the island, obviously very much against his will. However, Widmore most likely did this because Jacob and the Island presumably need him for the holy war, where they will fight the Evil that is Man in Black/The Smoke Monster/Fake John Locke.

Charles Widmore seems to have several philosophical connections. When he finds Real John Locke off the island, he renames him Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher who believed that which is useful is good. In a Benthamian way, Widmore uses Desmond Hume, named for a man whose philosophy was similar to that of Philosopher John Locke; both philosophers believed that human knowledge is based on and restricted to sensory observations. I think I learned about some of these people many a year ago, however, I remember nothing. Perhaps in the future, I will read more than a short definition of them and write more on Lost and Philosophy. I will say this, however: I believe that Lost is a big conspiracy to get people to learn about philosophy and other edu-ma-cational things.

My favorite part of this episode, other than the Ben parts (because I’m in love with him now) was all that fun talk of the Aphasia that Sun suffered from. Yes, I’m a linguisitcky geek. Yes, I could’ve said “linguistics geek,” but that wouldn’t have been funny.