SPOILER ALERT – Lost - What the Ankh?!

Since the Lost Complete Series Collection finally shipped from Amazon (they had some problem that delayed the blessed event), I thought I would see if their description of this thing I pre-ordered had become more detailed. It had. The image of this box set has changed from a normal one to a pile o’ stuff, and there is a nice list of cool bonus material including actual materials (not just stuff on DVDs), including something called an ankh.


As I’ve mentioned before, I generally haven’t been reading other people’s takes on Lost since I’ve been blogging about it so that I could remain largely pure, original, and not-too-influenced in my thoughts, so I had never seen this word before. Rather than assuming that it must be some terrible curse word (it sounds so angry-like), I googled, and discovered that it is something the Egyptian divinity used, and it is a hieroglyph that means “eternal life.” It is a cross with a loop at the top, in other words, the list-o’-candidates-containing thingie that Jacob gave Hurley in the guitar case and that the (also Egyptian) statue was holding. Oh, did you not notice all that? Neither did I; the things Google found told me all that. I never noticed the statue holding the thing, and I just assumed the cross with the loop on top that was in the guitar case and contained the list-o’-candidates was some kind of Jacob symbol. Since it involves a cross, I assumed it was just a modified Jesus-y cross. Duh, of course it would be an ancient Egyptian thing considering the other Egyptians things on the island (including hieroglyphs scattered throughout it), and of course I should have googled sooner to learn about it. If I had, I might have gotten the clue that the Island is the home of eternal life, via the Light, and that Jacob lives in the foot of a statue that once held eternal life, but his life would no longer be so eternal and would be cut short, just as the statue had been cut short. Meh, I’m sure I wouldn’t have come up with all these ideas, so it’s ok. It’s fun to learn about it, knowing all that we now know.

Hmmm…the things Google found also say the ankh was the thing that the Dharma leader’s wife saved from her late husband. Does that mean that she had been married to a follower of Jacob, or in other words, an Other (or, more accurately, a Hostile)? Was she an Other (Hostile) herself? I must google s’more, excuse me for a moment. Ah, here we go, this nice blog refreshed my terrible memory, and explains that Paul was a Dharma person, but suggests (as I just did) that perhaps Paul was really an Other, a possibility, as I said, indicated by his ankh.

By the way, senet, the game that Man in Black was playing, is also of Egyptian origin, and I also discovered that word via the list o’ bonus features at Amazon since I will also be getting that game. Clearly, Lost is heavily imbued with ancient Egyptian things, presumably with the purpose of emphasizing the mythology and antiquity of the island.

The 2010 Emmys: The Good and the Evil

The title of this posting is clearly an exaggeration, in that what I will describe as the things that were not pleasing to me on last night’s Emmy Awards really does not qualify as evil. However, I feel this title is appropriate, since among the evil things is the lack of Lost recognition, and as you might know, I have written somewhat frequently regarding Good v. Evil on Lost. Isn’t it nice when I over-explain my writings? No? Oh, then you would hate when I over-explain jokes in real life (as opposed to bloggy life). Onto my Emmy induced thoughts!
The (Mostly) Good

Jimmy Fallon did a reasonably fantastic job as Emmy host. I was skeptical before the show, because there have been times where he has been lacking in the funny, presumably when he’s been overwhelmed with nervousness. However, he was quite funny for the most part, and he really did a great job. The opening Glee musical thing and the tribute to deceased shows (including Lost) were funny, entertaining, and very well executed. I also very much enjoyed the musical introductions to each section of awards. Jimmy’s non-musical words were also funny throughout the program, particularly the pro-Conan and anti-NBC remark. I would say that Jimmy did an excellent and flawless job, but there is one small portion of his hosting that renders such a statement impossible; the tweeted introductions for presenters were simply not amusing or well written. This is not surprising, since they were tweeted by regular, non-comedy-writer people. That is not to say there aren’t funny and talented regular people out there, but that is to say that believing that those funny and talented people could be found in time for a big awards show was probably not very wise. I had a feeling this wouldn’t go well, but I had hoped that the funny people out there on the Twitter would show themselves, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Jimmy Fallon, there is a reason that professional writers write things, and you demonstrated that nicely. It’s fun to find silver linings. Jimmy’s presenter intros that were written by professional comedy writers (presumably Jimmy himself) were well written, and some were definitely funny, particularly the intros involving Law & Order SVU saving the 10 P.M. time slot that Leno left for dead, and Jimmy hugging his long lost father, Tom Selleck.

The (Mostly) Evil

Lost didn’t win things. Lost should have won things. Specifically, Michael Emerson (or at least Terry O’Quinn) should have won for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Matthew Fox (or at least Hugh Laurie of House M.D.) should have won for Best Actor in a Drama and Matthew Fox should have won for Hottest Drama Man Ever (and Seth MacFarlane would win Hottest Comedy Man Ever in this award show in my brain). Lost should have won Best Drama TV Show (or whatever that category is called), and I think the Emmy audience agrees with me since they seemed to cheer the loudest when Lost was mentioned. I don’t remember who won for Best Writing and Best Directing, but probably Lost should have won those too (yes, I could google it, but I am too lazy).

Glee should have won more things than it did. However, I’m very happy that they won Best Directing and that Jane Lynch won for Best Supporting Actress. It would have been nice for Glee to win Best Comedy Show on the TV, but since they lost, I’m glad they lost to Modern Family, another great show (though Glee is better). Speaking of Modern Family, I enjoyed the cute thing they did with George Clooney and Stewie. I would put that part in the “Good” section, however, I don’t have anything else to say about it, and it fits more nicely here.

Conan didn’t win. Conan should have won, not only because he deserved to win, and not only because it was Conan’s only chance to win for his work on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, but also because it would have been a nice, clear Conan-is-better-than-Jay statement to Jay Leno and NBC. Despite this loss, however, I do believe that the statement was made nonetheless; after all, Conan was nominated, but Jay was not.

Since Conan didn’t win, The Colbert Report really should have. As much as I love The Daily Show, and as great as it’s been this year, The Colbert Report is generally a better show, and the week in Iraq this year was certainly of Emmy-winning caliber. Since The Colbert Report also didn’t win for Best Funny Variety Show, I am glad The Daily Show won. I’m also glad that the guy accepting the award mentioned Colbert and Conan, and I’m glad that he reminded us that the people at The Daily Show are worthy of their numerous Emmys.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “The End”

I apologize for the delay in posting this and the preceding two postings, but I haven’t been feeling well. The following was written on the night of the Lost finale (May 23, 2010) and in the days subsequent to it.

These are thoughts I’m having after the final episode of Lost, "The End," was over. See this blog posting for the thoughts I had during the episode, and this one for the thoughts I had during the retrospective before the final episode, “The Final Journey.”

Confirmed, Disconfirmed, and Non-Existent Predictions

Woohoo!!!!! I was finally proven right!!!!! When all hope was lost, I clung to some hope anyway, and I was right! I go girl! I am awesome, and you are more awesome for reading my blog and my correct predictions!!!!!!

Yes, Hurley finally became the new Jacob, or, more accurately, the new New Jacob! Jack, the first New Jacob, ordained Hurley as the new New Jacob before Jack sacrificed himself for the Island, his friends, and the world by fulfilling his life’s purpose of re-kindling the Light. While I didn’t predict that Jack would be an intermediary Jacob, I did have Jack as my back-up prediction, and I did recognize that both Jack and Hurley possessed the most Jacobliness, experienced the most personal growth, and seemed to have the most favor in Jacob’s eyes. In addition to the Hurley-is-the-new-Jacob portion of my prediction, I had also predicted that the Flash-Sideways was a creation of Hurley where he and his friends could live the happy fulfilling lives they were meant to live. I was almost correct, since Christian Shephard explains that the Flash-Sideways is an afterlife created by all of the Lost people in it such that they would be able to find each other. Personally, I believe that Hurley probably guided their efforts to create that afterlife, and since he was the new New Jacob, it is certainly possible.

I was completely and utterly wrong about what I insisted on calling the New Reality. It isn’t reality at all, which is why I will now give in and call it the Flash-Sideways like the rest of the world. The possibility that it wasn’t real, that it was an afterlife, never crossed my mind. As I’ve mentioned before, I would have felt that the island being Hell or an afterlife would be a huge cop-out, and that is why I refused to believe such a thing; perhaps that is also why it never crossed my mind that the Flash-Sideways might be an afterlife. Except that wasn’t a cop-out at all. It would have been so nice if it were real, and I think my hope that it was real was too strong to allow me to see any other possibilities. Also, I’m probably just not the world’s best Lost predictor, although you have to admit, I’m not too shabby.

I was right about there being a big Jack v. Fake Locke argument about Fate v. Coincidence, except in the more specific form of Everything Matters v. Nothing Matters. Obviously the argument was reversed, in that Jack has learned from Real John Locke (and from his experiences and ruminations and so forth) to be on the side of fate, and everything mattering, while Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black was on the side of coincidence and nothing mattering. It’s possible that Fake Locke was only saying the things he said to screw with Jack, since he knew that could have been Jack’s weakness, if Jack wasn’t so strong and hot. I suppose his hotness probably has nothing to do with it though.

Plot

The short version of my analysis of what happened is pretty much what they told us happened. The island was real life, the New Reality/Flash-Sideways was not real, and was some kind of Heaven-like afterlife, or maybe a pre-Heaven thing, since they were all planning to move on when they were ready. Matthew Fox explained on Jimmy Kimmel’s Aloha to Lost that there is a religion where they believe that when you die, you don’t move on until you remember your death, how you died, and everyone involved. It seems our characters had to remember their life on the island in order to be ready to move on. Perhaps they also needed to accept certain things about themselves, and to let go. For example, Ben probably needed to work through and let go of his sins before he would be ready. It’s interesting that the Island was their true life, sine so many people, including myself at one point, thought the Island could be the afterlife, or even Hell.

The most important part of their lives was on the island, as Dead Christian Shephard explained to his dead son Jack, and so they somehow made sure they would be able to find each other there in the afterlife. They are all dead, but as Christian implied, they did not all die young, and we can assume that many of them lived long lives. I would imagine that Hurley and Ben probably lived the longest, since Hurley is the new Jacob and he appointed Ben as his Richard (i.e. as his guide, his number 2).

The man who plays Michael (Harold Perrineau) explained on Jimmy Kimmel that Michael will remain on the island, perhaps forever. I imagine that is because of evil things he did. Of course Ben did a lot more things that were horribly evil, yet he is in the pleasant afterlife and allowed to move on when he is ready (presumably), though it is taking a longer time for him to get there than the less evil people. I imagine Ben is not destined to be a ghost on the island because he redeemed himself – he turned good via his emotional breakthrough, and while he strayed briefly for the sake of survival, he came back to the side of Good, ultimately becoming the second in command, the advisor, the Richard to the good and pure Hurley.

I think Eloise Widmore/Hawking might have been ready to move on, but I don’t believe Charles Widmore or their son, Daniel Widmore/Faraday, were ready. I imagine this is why Eloise did not want Desmond to take her son with him; she wanted to keep her family together, because they belong together, just as our other characters belong together.


We now have confirmation of whether Charles Widmore is good or evil. Similar to Ben, he was evil, often for the sake of the Island and Jacob, but turned good, with the help of Jacob. Widmore had said that Jacob had visited him and convinced him to change his evil ways. I wasn’t sure I believed him at the time, but I do now. It makes sense, since he seemed to know things that Jacob would have told him, as did Eloise Hawking, whom Jacob probably also visited. There is now unquestionable evidence that Widmore is Good; he was in the same place as the rest of our Good characters, and was not left to be a ghost on the Island, as evil people are. Similar to Ben, he and perhaps Eloise were not ready to move on, perhaps because they still had to work through all the evil things they did before turning Good.


I have one problem with Lost (right now, maybe I’ll think of more later). Why didn’t Desmond or Jack turn into Smoke Monsters? Previous Jacob Lady told Jacob that if he ever went into the Light, he would suffer a fate worse than death, and when Jacob threw Man in Black into the Light, he turned into the Smoke Monster, demonstrating what Previous Jacob Lady meant. I understand why Desmond didn’t turn to smoke, since he is not immortal or divine, and therefore, it is not unreasonable to assume that different rules might apply. I suppose Jack didn’t turn to smoke because he was turning the Light back on and was therefore not going toward it, but was rather going away from it. I guess I cleared that smoke up for myself. Hahahahahaha! I made a pun!

The Island is under water in the Flash-Sideways, but they are in some kind of afterlife. This could mean that it’s so far into the future that the Island has sunken some time after Hurley’s time as Jacob. This is possible, since Christian Shephard explained that time does not exist there. Alternatively, and this is the way I’m leaning, since this afterlife is a better version of their lives, as the producers said in “The Final Journey” and I suggested early in the season, in this life, the Island and Jacob are not exerting their effects on our characters. It wasn’t the Island that made their time on the island the greatest time of their lives, it was the people, and that is why they created that Heaven such that they could find each other again.


Purgatory

Jimmy Kimmel and some people on Myface (Facebook) have concluded that the Island was some kind of Purgatory. I personally don’t believe this, and there is evidence against it. In the Flash-Sideways, when each character peacefully and happily realized they were dead and accepted it with tremendous peace, they had memories of the Island – their lives flashed before their eyes. Why would such a critical moment come with memories of time spent in Purgatory rather than memories from the greatest part of a person’s life, particularly when this is all happening in a fictional drama show on the TV? Of course, the Island is bizarre, and crazy, supernatural things happen there, but this is fiction, and it was presented in a way that allowed for very comfortable suspended disbelief, at least in my opinion.

The Flash-Sideways might be some kind of purgatory, as a friend (and probably others) have suggested. I don’t believe it is Purgatory in what I understand to be the traditional sense. It was not a place of suffering, or a quasi-Hell, or soul purification, but it might be a place where people work out their issues – some sins, some just issues – and eventually accept and let go of whatever is necessary. For John Locke, he needed to let go of the sense that he needed to punish himself, and he needed to accept his disability so he could be freed from both. Jack needed to accept his father’s death and thereby let go of his father. Additionally, Jack also had to accept his father’s life, in that he had to accept the kind of person and father Christian Shephard was; that is why Jack has a son in the Flash-Sideways. Sayid needed to let go of the sense that he was evil, and needed to accept that he is good. Ben still needs to work through his many sins, since, like Sayid, he is also good, and he proved that in his life, just as Sayid proved he was still good when he (Sayid) sacrificed himself to save his friends. These are but a few examples; for each character, there was something to be accepted, something to work through, something to let go of; perhaps someday I will discuss more of them (but don't hold your breath). Once they were able to let go, when they were ready, they could leave; they could move on, perhaps to Heaven, perhaps to another part of Heaven, perhaps towards Nirvana. Regardless of what you believe, they moved on to something greater.

The Death of Jack

A friend suggested that Jack might have been the last to die, since he was the last to have his memories re-ignited. That got me thinking, when he died after climbing out of the Light, an eternity could have passed since Jack as the previous New Jacob might have become immortal or quasi-immortal. Since Rose and Bernard’s doggie was with him as he died, did Fake John Locke give our kind couple and their dog immortality when he promised Desmond they would never be hurt? If so, that’s nice of him, and provides further evidence that despite his intensely evil ways, Fake Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black did have some glimmer of Good left in him Whether or not they were given quasi-immortality, Rose and Bernard did die eventually, since they were in the Flash-Sideways.

I think there is evidence that Jack died soon after Hurley’s Jacobification. As Jack lay dying, he saw the plane overhead flying away; this was probably the plane carrying his friends, and so Jack knew that they made it off the island. It is possible, however, that it was another plane, far in the future, since Ben pointed out to Hurley that Jacob’s rules of no one coming or going from the Island could be changed.

Jack died knowing that his death had purpose; he knew that the Island was saved and would be safe from the now dead Smoke Monster, and he knew that his friends had escaped the island. Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster’s attempt to make Jack believe that he would die for nothing failed epically (I can’t believe I just said that hahahahaha…Epic fail).

I believe Jack took the longest to accept that he is dead because it took the longest for him to let go and have the emotional experience that would bring on the memories. As Locke had told him, Jack had to let go of his father, to accept his father’s death, and to accept his father for everything that he was and wasn’t. That was why Jack was a father in the Flash-Sideways, so he could experience what his father might have gone through – so that he might understand his father better. Jack never got closure for his father’s death; I don’t believe he ever did in his life, and he didn’t get a chance to have a funeral for him until the lost coffin was found and delivered in the Flash-Sideways. In his life, Jack was, in fact, plagued by his father appearing to be alive after he died via The Smoke Monster’s use of his corpse. In the Flash-Sideways, Jack finally had a chance to gain the closure he needed, and so when he touched the coffin, the memories from his life were finally ignited. He once again saw his father appearing to be alive, and his father could explain all that was happening. Jack was finally able to let go.

The Death of the Smoke Monster and the Life of Richard

It was interesting to see that the Light might have been holding Fake John Locke on the Island, and it was almost certainly the force that kept him indestructible. Only after the Light was extinguished could Kate’s Jack-saving bullet affect him, and only then could Jack kill the Smoke Monster. Therefore, I imagine the Light was also the mechanism by which Jacob’s gift of immortality worked on Richard; when it was extinguished, Richard began to age, and with the prospect of dying someday, he could finally enjoy the life he had left.

Conclusion (Because I’m not creative enough to come up with a better title for this concluding section)

I really did love this episode. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It truly was satisfying, and, despite the many tears that flowed and despite the deathly ending, it was a happy ending. As a friend pointed out (yes, this friend is the one I keep mentioning in this posting), this episode provided much-needed closure, both for the characters, and for the show. They were all dead, but many of them probably led long lives. They might not have experienced all the happy things they should have in their lives, but they got to experience those things in an afterlife. They were all together, as they were supposed to be – as they were destined to be. Jacob selected them because they were alone like he was, but, thanks to Jacob, they weren’t alone anymore.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6: Thoughts During “The End”

The following are thoughts I had during the final episode of Lost, written in sort of a Twitter-like (Twittery?) way. See this blog posting for post-show analysis, and this one for pre-show thoughts during the retrospective, “The Final Journey.”


I think I’ve forgiven Sawyer – I don’t seem to hate him anymore for killing Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Lapidus. I’m wondering if Kate will end up with him or Jack in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways, and I think I would be happy either way.

I’m so stubborn that even though Jack has already become the new Jacob, I still feel like Hurley is very Jacobian. His mannerisms, his New Reality and old reality confidence mixed with his natural sympathy and morals, and his genuine desire to help people, particularly his friends from his old life, all seems so very Jacob-like. It really hit me when he told Charlie he was sorry before he shot him with a tranquilizer gun. It was so nice to see the genuine happiness in Hurley’s face when he saw Charlie for the first time in the New Reality; as the producers said in the retrospective and as I began to guess previously, Hurley (and also Desmond) seems to have full access to all the memories from the reality we are familiar with.

When I wondered who helped Desmond out of the well, I never would have thought it was Rose and Bernard. To be honest, I forgot about them again, which I think is what they would want. Unfortunately, the very evil Fake John Locke used threats of murdering them to get Desmond to go with him and do his bidding. Interestingly, Fake Locke claims to have promised to never hurt them. If he will sink the island, that would inevitably hurt them. As always, he is lying.

Speaking of sinking the island, the end became obvious when Fake Locke said he would destroy the island by sinking it, since the producers said the island no longer exerts its effects since it’s under water in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways. Or maybe that was all just to throw us off.

As I expected, Richard is not dead, and was only knocked out. I had been thinking (but I don’t think I wrote this) that perhaps Jacob’s gift of immortality died with him (Jacob); however, clearly it did not.

BEST MEMORY OF A PAST LIFE EVER!!!!!! Jin and Sun. Everything is ok now. They remembered everything when Juliet (!) was their baby ultrasound doctor; they remembered the island, each other, when Sun thought Jin was dead, their English, their best reunion ever, and dying together. Omg, greatest moment on Lost ever! Now it’s all ok. Their deaths in the reality we’re familiar with made this moment better than it could have been. I can therefore fully forgive Sawyer now.

Holy crap! Lapidus is alive!!! And he wants to fly Richard and Miles off the island! But the plane is already full of explosives that Widmore installed! Oh no! But wait, didn’t Richard and Miles know that too?

That’s strange, Richard has a gray hair, though he’s not supposed to age, and he was happy about this, explaining that he just realized he wants to live. Is it because he’s now going to age and die like a non-immortal, and my suspicion that Jacob’s gift died with him was accurate?

It’s kind of funny that Jack in the New Reality is trying to improve Real Locke’s life and half joked that he could kill him, while in the reality we’re familiar with, he is trying to kill Fake Locke.

I knew it!!!!! Juliet is Jack’s baby-mama (and ex-wife), just as I predicted!!!!!!

Hurley in the New Reality is sounding more and more Jacob-like, saying things like he’s not allowed to tell Sayid something because there are rules and he should trust him, and that Sayid is a good person. Even in the reality we’re familiar with, he told Jack he believes in him when they separated when Jack went with Desmond and Fake Locke toward the Light. Maybe Hurley is secretly the new Jacob somehow. It was cute how Fake Locke said that Jack being the new Jacob is the obvious choice hahahaha, it sure is.

Wow, Sayid’s destiny was Shannon – I thought it was Nadia. I guess that’s what I get for missing giant chunks of seasons.

This episode is ripping my heart to pieces, jumping from one reality to the other, happy fate finding and love finding times to crazy world ending apocalyptic times.

What does Desmond mean when he says they’re going to leave once everyone knows about their previous life and their fate? And why isn’t he taking Daniel Widmore/Faraday with him? Are they going back to the island? The one that’s underwater in this reality? Or are they going to another island? Why would they leave if they can have their destinies in the real world? Apparently, Eloise Hawking/Widmore knows of the previous life and island, and that was why she didn’t want Desmond to start looking for Penny. It wasn’t about her jealousy of her husband’s other child, as I suggested before.

I guess if they didn’t jump between the heart wrenching and the heart warming, we wouldn’t be able to handle it – it would be too overwhelming. It was nice that they had Gene Wilder gently singing about imagination in the Willy Wonka song in the commercial directly after one of the heart wrenching moments, as if to calm us down and remind us that this is fiction – it’s pure imagination.

Ben isn’t evil; he was just trying to survive. He went right back to helping his new friends when he became separated from Fake Locke. And now he, along with the kingly Hurley, wants to help Jack rekindle the Light that Desmond was told to turn off. Ben said if the island is going down he’s going down with it, but I think it’s more than that. I think he wants to help his new friends, for the sake of the good of humanity, and for the sake of the good in his soul.

Hurley will be the new Jacob! I mean the new Jack! Because Jack is going to sacrifice himself as Desmond did to rekindle the Light that Desmond was told to turn off! And before he does, he is going to make Hurley the new New Jacob, i.e. the new Jack! Jacob said Jack would protect the Island for as long as he could – that didn’t have to mean an eternity! I totally wrote all that before Jack just said “it needs to be you, Hugo.”!!!! I was right all along!!!! That was why Jacob said, “I’m not going to choose, Hugo.” I thought he was just taunting me, since without punctuation that becomes “I’m not going to choose Huge,” but he wasn’t taunting me. Jacob didn’t choose Hurley because Jack would choose Hurley!

Desmond’s alive! Woohoo!

Omg, I love Hurley, and I love Ben, and I love that Ben told Hurley what I’ve sort of been saying all along – that Hurley will do what he does best: take care of people. In return, Hurley gave Ben what he (Ben) always wanted: recognition of his importance and usefulness. Hurley asked Ben to help him, and Ben was honored, and this is how it was supposed to be, and I love Lost.

Omg, I don’t think I ever cried so much because of the TV. They’re all dead. All of them. They want to leave because it’s not the real world at all; it’s Heaven, or some kind of afterlife. Christian Shephard explained to Jack that they created this so they could find each other because their time together was the most important part of their lives. That’s why the show began with Jack’s eye opening on the island and ended with his eye closing on the island. Jack’s life, and all of their lives, happened on that island. That’s why their lives were all better in the New Reality, because it wasn’t reality at all, and that’s why the producers called that portion of the plot the “Flash-Sideways” and why I was very wrong to call it the “New Reality.” I was right, though, sort of, when I said the New Reality/Flash-Sideways is what Hurley as the new Jacob wove as their new improved lives. Except it was all of them, perhaps led by Hurley, perhaps not. It was comforting to hear that some of them died before Jack and some long after, and that there is no “now,” because we can therefore assume that most of them lived long lives. Now I understand why Ben was working things out before going into the church; he wasn’t ready to move on. I assume this is because he did a lot of evil things in his life, and he needed to work through that, the way he seemed rather distraught for what he did to Locke. His apology to Locke and Locke’s forgiveness really meant so much, not just to Locke and Ben, but to us.

I had a feeling the show would end with Jack’s eye closing, because the producers were hinting at it, when they said on talk shows that they knew what image the series would end on from the beginning

Lost is brilliant. The producers are brilliant. I apologize to the producers for all the mean things I said about them. They’re not evil at all. They’re brilliant. I love Lost. Best show ever. Best episode ever. I kind of hate it though; I wanted the New Reality to be the realest reality, not the fakest. But I can’t deny it, it was amazing.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6: Before “The End”

The following are some thoughts I had while watching the pre-Lost-finale retrospective, “The Final Journey,” written in sort of a Twitter-like way. For my thoughts during the Lost finale written in the same fashion, go here, and for my normal blog posting about the finale, go here.


The Lost producers explained that the Flash-Sideways is what happens when the island is not pulling the characters toward itself; therefore, it has nothing to do with anything the new Jacob is doing, as I had thought. I guess I should have realized that since the island is under water in the Flash-Sideways, however, I assumed that New Jacob could somehow still be functional underwater. Since they are suggesting that is not the case, then perhaps Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster succeeded in destroying the Island, and if that is the case, then all that talk of the Light was a big lie, or a misperception, a superstition carried from one Jacob to the next, from one divine generation to the next.

The lack of Island gravity pulling the characters toward it and toward each other suggest that it truly was fate drawing them together.

I was somewhat correct then, when, early in the season, I wondered if the New Reality/Flash-Sideways is what happens when Jacob might not have been affecting their lives. I was just wrong more recently when I suggested that the new Jacob (whom I was sure would be Hurley) was influencing their lives in order to improve them.

I didn’t realize that Real John Locke never told Jack that he was in a wheelchair in his pre-Island days. Clearly that means I was more correct than I realized when I said Locke never accepted his disability so that he could move on with his life in the reality we’re familiar with.

The producers explained that in the Flash-Sideways, the characters ask for and provide help for each other, which is different from the reality we’re familiar with. I didn’t notice that distinction, but it explains why they aren’t empty or without purpose in the New Realty; their purpose is to help each other, and in so doing, they attain happiness, and are not so deeply flawed, as they were when Jacob chose them as candidates. Jacob told them they needed the Island because they were alone; in the Flash-Sideways, they are not alone, for they found each other, as if by fate, or, I stubbornly say, by Hurley…I mean Jacob…I mean Jack.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “What They Died For”

My Disproved Theory


Well, it looks like “What They Died For” disproved my big Lost prediction. Hurley is not the new Jacob, Jack is. However, in my defense, Jack was my second choice and/or guess, as I explicitly stated despite my certainty that it would be Hurley. I've also spoken of Jack in ways suggestive of his potential Jacob-ness. For example, I’ve spoken less explicitly of how Jack and Hurley both grew to form more well-rounded characters, and about how both Jack and Hurley have leader-like and kingly names. I was correct in that I did state that Sawyer would not be the new Jacob. He once again demonstrated his lack of Jacob-ness when he solipsisticly accused Jacob of ruining his life, with no mention of his friends’ lives. Of course, it’s possible that Sawyer simply doesn’t feel he should speak for other people, but I doubt that those were his thoughts. Clearly, I’m still angry with Sawyer for letting Fake John Locke’s little plan to kill the candidates happen, and thereby killing the Kwons, Sayid, and Lapidus. By the way, the aftermath of that scenario also demonstrates the Jacobliness of Jack and not-so-Jacobliness of Sawyer; Jack reassured Sawyer that he was not at fault for killing their friends, however, Sawyer had no problem in the beginning of this season putting all the blame for Juliet’s death on Jack and wanting to kill him for it.

Getting back to my disproved theory, in my defense, I believe that if no one else had accepted the job of Protector of the Light, Hurley would have, for all the reasons that I thought he would be the next Jacob, and also because he seemed rather relieved when Jack accepted the job. I would have thought Kate would have taken the job if she didn’t have Aaron to care for, for she is also inherently Good and has strong morals. I wouldn’t have thought of her motherhood as a non-Jacobly attribute before Jacob explained that her motherhood was the reason that he crossed her name off the list Beyond Hurley and Jack, I really couldn’t decide who the next best choice in Jacobs would be between Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, and the Kwons (before the latter three died in “The Candidate”). By the way, I was also wrong regarding Kate’s crossed off name, in that I thought perhaps Fake John Locke, rather than Jacob, did it; but as I just said, Jacob did do it.

Despite my disproved prediction, I believe Jack will make a good Jacob, and I think it will be good for him as well. As Jacob stated, the candidates needed the Island as much as the Island needed them, and that is very much the case for Jack. Being the new Jacob will give Jack the purpose he needs, the purpose he couldn’t find in the real world. Jack will be a good Jacob, because he genuinely cares about people, he has strong morals, he is a natural leader, and he has quite a brain. He has learned to let go of his stubbornness, and has supplemented his scientific beliefs with the ability to have faith. He is flexible, and is no longer weighed down with stubbornness like certain Sawyers. Speaking of Sawyer, Jack is forgiving and empathetic. Jack Shephard, the man of science who had to learn to have faith, became a divine entity similar to G-d. He was in search of purpose, and he attained the greatest purpose – a purpose that, in the end, he chose.

The Smoke Monster: Pure Evil or Misunderstood Monster

I previously wondered how the evil Smoke Monster could be the being that inhabited Christian Shephard’s corpse, since he seemed to be helpful. However, as I discussed in a previous blog posting, nothing is purely evil, and so, perhaps there is some Good, even in The Smoke Monster. Alternatively, Fake Christian Shephard could have also been using the people he was helping for his own purposes. Either way, it is clear that he helped Real John Locke with the Wheel at least partially because he built that Wheel, and perhaps also because he does not want people to be trapped there as he is.

There seems to be some confusion regarding The Smoke Monster’s desires and intentions. Jacob has believed from early on that Man in Black and The Smoke Monster want the Light in the greedy ways that Jacob must protect it from. However, it seems like Man in Black/The Smoke Monster aren’t very interested in the Light per se. Man in Black used it to build the Wheel in hopes of leaving the Island that held him captive since he was born. All he’s ever wanted, since he was a young boy staring into the ocean, was to leave the Island. Now, not only does he want to leave the Island, but he also wants to destroy it, which is understandable; of course he would want to destroy the place that imprisoned him for so long. While, like most monsters, The Smoke Monster is misunderstood, he is also evil – let’s not forget that. Even as Man in Black, when he was Good, he had no problem using people as a means to an end, and he continues to do that now with the added evil-ness of having no problem killing anyone who is not useful to him or who stands in his way. The Smoke Monster/Man in Black truly fits well with the pseudonym of the body he is inhabiting (i.e. Jeremy Bentham).

Destiny Directed by Desmond

I was wrong about Desmond in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways. He was not seeking vengeance on Real New Reality John Locke for what Fake John Locke did in the reality we’re familiar with as I previously suggested. While beating the crap out of New Reality Ben, he explains that he is trying to help Locke "let go." In other words, Desmond was simply continuing his mission to help his fellow Oceanic 815-ers find their fate, albeit in a very violent way.

Desmond’s crazy wheelchair-hitting and Ben-beating activities were part of his plans in that after committing these terrible helpful crimes, he turned himself in to the Sawyer and Miles containing LAPD where he was incarcerated with Kate and Sayid, whom he set free and sent on their way to their destinies with the help of Ana Lucia and Hurley. Desmond and Hurley have teamed up to help their friends from another life. It seems as though they have both had more memories of that life, since Hurley recognized Ana Lucia, whom he had not met before in the New Reality.

Desmond's crazy actions and instructions to “Let go” got New Reality John Locke to do just that, and allow Jack to try to fix him so that he might walk again. Of course, Locke and Jack had their standard Fate v. Coincidence argument before Locke stated his fate-driven desire.

A Little Epiphany

I just realized that all the Jack v. Real Locke arguments were foreshadowing the final fight that will likely ensue in the Finale; since Jack is the new Jacob, Jacob v. Smoke Monster has become Jack v. Fake John Locke.

A Bit of Confusion

I wonder who helped Desmond escape from the well. It’s unlikely (though possible) that Sayid did it, since he told Jack he was still in the well before he sacrificed himself. It’s also not likely (though possible) that it was Jack, Hurley, Kate, and/or Sawyer, because (unless I missed something) I don’t believe they found the well yet, and Desmond is not present for the Jacob-ification of Jack. It’s very unlikely (though possible) that it was Fake John Locke or Ben since both seemed surprised that Desmond wasn’t there. Perhaps it was Widmore, Zoe, or one of his other workers.

The Kwons’ Purpose

I think it’s clear that the penultimate episode of Lost is called “What They Died For” because we now see what the purpose is of the deaths of Jin and Sun (as well as the other characters who died) – that is, the purpose according to the Island. Their deaths further fueled the remaining candidates’ intentions of killing Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster by adding pure vengeance to their motivations. Perhaps that was Sun’s and Jin’s purpose from the beginning, and perhaps that was also why they were separated for so long. Their separation made it clear to each of them that they could not live without the other, which was the reason they died together.

I had previously wondered (thought I don’t believe I wrote about it) if Jin was the Kwon candidate since he landed in the 1970s with the other candidates while Sun landed in present time. However, I partially believed before and now I more strongly believe that “Kwon” represented both Kwons as a unified whole since they are soul mates. I believe they were separated not because of lack of specialness of either, but because they needed to know that he is the yin to her yang, and that their individual specialness was augmented in their union.

Vengeance

Vengeance seems to play a rather large role in Lost. As I discussed above, The Smoke Monster killed Jacob as revenge for Jacob turning him into The Smoke Monster, and as I discussed previously Jacob and his family were all involved in vengeance. The vengeance the remaining characters are seeking against Fake John Locke is only one example of vengeance in “What They Died For.” Ben seems to be seeking vengeance against Widmore. I don’t believe he is helping Fake John Locke for the power that he promises; I believe he is doing it to finally seek vengeance on Widmore for killing his daughter. And vengeance he surely sought; Ben did not lead Fake John Locke to Widmore so that Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster could kill him. Rather, Ben killed Widmore himself after Fake John Locke got the information he needed from Widmore. I thought it was rather funny in an ironic way that Widmore, the man who named Real John Locke after Jeremy Bentham, a utilitarian philosopher who believed only useful things are good, was killed after he finished serving his purpose as far as the very Benthamian Fake John Locke was concerned. Additionally, as Fake John Locke killed Zoe, he explained that Widmore caused her death by rendering her useless to Fake John Locke when he told her not to tell Fake John Locke anything.

Ben’s Intentions

In addition to his vengeance seeking, Ben has returned to his creepy, evil ways. Michael Emerson explained on The View that it is survival; Ben would surely be killed by Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster if he didn’t cooperate. After all, it looks like Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster might have killed the immortal Richard, which doesn’t make sense, since Richard can never die, so perhaps he is still alive.

Since I still believe there is Good in Ben’s soul, I can’t help but think that perhaps he is simply pretending to be going along with Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster. The only person he has killed for him thus far was Widmore, and he’s been wanting to do that since Widmore caused the death of Alex. Furthermore, I really don’t think Ben was truly interested in the power Fake Locke promised him. If he was, I imagine that must have changed when Fake John Locke told him he could have the island all to himself, but then proceeded to state that he wants to destroy the island.

It’s clear that Ben was destined to be beaten by Desmond, and to be Alex’s father or father figure, since both things happened in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways. Perhaps Ben and Danielle will get married and Ben will once again, adopt Alex. It was cute how Alex jocularly said she and her mother would kidnap Ben if he didn’t accept their invitation; apparently, some form of kidnapping was also in Ben’s destiny.

Jacob’s Views

I was correct in my explanation of why Jacob is such a huge fan of free will. He confirmed that he feels people should have a choice because he didn’t have a choice when the role of Protector of the Light was thrust upon him. Jacob also confirmed the correctness of my explanation for why Man in Black/The Smoke Monster was so eager to kill Jacob; Jacob explained that Man in Black has wanted to kill him ever since Jacob threw him into the Light and turned him into The Smoke Monster.

It’s interesting to think about the differences between Jacob and his adoptive mother whom I’ve been calling Previous Jacob Lady, aside from the distinction of free will (if Previous Jacob Lady believes in free will, she is not overly concerned with its importance as Jacob is). It’s clear that the differences between Jacob and Previous Jacob Lady stem from their differing worldviews. Jacob believes people are ultimately good, while Previous Jacob Lady believes people are destructive. Thus, in this regard, Jacob v. Previous Jacob Lady = Jacob v. Man in Black. Previous Jacob Lady chose, as her replacement, people born on the Island and raised by her, to ensure their purity and loyalty. Jacob, however, selected as his potential replacement unattached, unhappy, deeply flawed people living in the world with no purpose, so that he could give them purpose and make their lives better. Jacob’s selections have already lived across the sea – they already know what lies beyond the oceans; they have already been there and done that. Previous Jacob Lady’s potential replacements knew not of what, if anything, existed across the sea, and the curiosity of one (Man in Black) has plagued him with the unyielding need to venture off the Island. Previous Jacob Lady preferred to keep her replacements educated in only what she felt was necessary to protect the Light, while Jacob understood that such a restricted education and such restricted lives result in restricted people who might feel trapped and thereby cannot protect the Light. Jacob is a better Jacob than Previous Jacob Lady was; perhaps Jack will be an even better Jacob, for he will have learned from Jacob’s mistakes as Jacob learned from his mother’s mistakes.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “Across the Sea” Follow-up

After all that I’ve already written about last week’s episode of Lost, “Across the Sea,” I still have more to say.


Deepak Chopra appeared on The Colbert Report last week, and I finally watched it. He unknowingly provided further insight into the black and white imagery of Lost, in that he spoke of the ambiguity of good and evil within each person as well as within divine entities. Of course, I related this to Lost; it’s hard not to relate Lost to greater and broader things in the world.

Chopra (who should marry Oprah so she could become Oprah Chopra (I think I stole that joke from Jay Leno (funnily enough) and from Chopra himself was he was on one of those late night shows, possibly Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show)) explained that the Christian belief is that our souls only contain the Light; however, Chopra believes there is a duality within each of us of light and shadow. Furthermore, the Devil, as a fallen angel, is divine as G-d is divine.

I think these are some of the points Lost is trying to make – that everyone, including the Divine, inherently has Light and Shadow within their souls, and nothing and no one is purely light or shadow, good or evil. That is the point I made in the first in what has become this series of blog postings about “Across the Sea.” Furthermore, perhaps this acceptance of the duality of our souls is the reason Jacob told Ricardo/Richard in “Ab Aeterno” that he could not absolve him of his murdering sin. That is, perhaps Jacob could not absolve him, not because of a lack of divine power, but because we cannot be freed from the evil things we do, and we must accept those dark things as well as the Light of our souls.

I think Chopra’s point was that we should harness our shadows for Good, and that with our shadows come gifts. I assume he means that we should find a way to utilize our dark sides to create some good. I would probably get a better understanding of all this if I read the book he was promoting on The Colbert Report, The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self. I just read the description of the book at Amazon, and I was close. Chopra’s point is actually that we should embrace both the light and shadowy aspects of our whole, true selves so that we can attain our full potential, happiness, and our gifts.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “Across the Sea” Supplemental

This Lost related posting is supplemental to my “Across the Sea” posting, because I thought of the following after I had already posted the posting proper, and this would be too much to add as an update within that posting.


The Light in Sayid

Sayid was presumably resurrected and infected with the apparent help of a pool of water at the Temple. The Light resides in a pool of water. Could those be the same pool of water? If they are, it would mean that the Light is already extinguishing, perhaps with wear and tear over the years, or perhaps with the death of Jacob. It is alternatively possible that Sayid’s pool simply had a sampling of the Light’s pool. In either case, Sayid’s infection would therefore be a watered down version of what happened to Man in Black when he became The Smoke Monster after being thrown into the Light – watered down via dilution, degradation, or simply because Sayid was a mere mortal and Man in Black was divine. Of course, it’s also possible that the two pools have nothing to do with each other, that Sayid’s pool had nothing to do with his resurrection, or that Sayid was not resurrected at all but whose corpse was inhabited by another entity,.

The Mysterious Mr. Widmore

We now know that the Island is home to the Light of humanity that requires protection from greedy humans who would want it and thereby destroy it…Uh oh, Charles Widmore is the greediest character on the Lost earth. I must therefore revisit the question of whether Widmore is good or evil.

I previously concluded that Widmore probably has good intentions that he executes in evil ways. I assumed that he would be teaming up with his old nemesis, Ben, just as Ben has teamed up with his old nemeses, the Oceanic 815 survivors. However, we really cannot be certain if Widmore is actually on Ben and the Jacob candidates’ side.

There is evidence for Widmore’s good intentions; I believe it was he who told Real John Locke there would be a war, and who implied that he was on the Good side of it. Widmore’s people also claimed to be protecting some of the candidates by keeping them safely in the polar bear cages until Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black helped free them. Of course, protecting the candidates might be irrelevant, since Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black also wanted them protected and alive until they were all together so they could kill each other.

I can’t think of much evidence for Widmore having evil intentions, other than his greediness, but obviously this greediness would suggest that he might want the Light for himself. Widmore, while presumably not evil in the New Reality/Flash Sideways, might still be greedy in that incarnation; he still needs power and wealth, or so I assume since he has power and wealth. I can’t remember if he was involved in any charitable work or funding, though I think Mrs. Widmore/Eloise Hawking is. Hurley, another man with power and wealth in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways, on the other hand, is very much involved in charitable things and otherwise using his power and wealth to altruistically help people, and we know how inherently Good he is (since I am sure he will be the new Jacob).

I’m sure we will find out soon enough if Widmore is Good and will help protect the Light and the Island, or if his greed and need for power have consumed him and will result in the Evil destruction of the Light. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if, in the reality we are familiar with, his Evil actions continue, even if his intentions are Good.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “Across the Sea”

I normally gloat joyously when I’m right about things, and apologize when I’m wrong, but I will do neither in this blog posting. There is too much going on, and we’ve learned too many things in this episode of Lost, "Across the Sea." I will try to indicate where I’ve correctly guessed things, but I will not dwell on it. I apologize for the lack of joy in this blog posting. I think I am still grieving the losses from “The Candidate.”

Jacob and Man in Black: Similarities

Poor, poor Man in Black/Smoke Monster/Fake John Locke. I say this, this time, without sarcasm doubt, or uncertainty.

As I’ve suggested on numerous occasions, both Jacob and the Man in Black are Good, or were Good. Nevertheless, like the regular people who their adoptive mother hated, they were both corrupted – they both did Evil things.

In my very first Lost related blog posting, I suggested that Jacob and the Man in Black are analogous to Biblical Jacob and Esau. I was close; Jacob and Man in Black are twins, however, despite the black-and-white imagery, neither was evil. Alternatively, maybe both divine men were both good and evil.

Yo Mama's So Old: The History of Jacob and Man in Black

We learned why Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black told Kate that his mother was insane; she sure was. Several times, I muttered, “You crazy b****.” She was rather quick to kill people. She was also rather creepy when speaking to Jacob; her creepy tone might rival Ben’s.

Jacob and Man in Black’s adoptive mother is the previous Jacob – the previous protector of the Island. She killed their biological mother after the latter birthed the twin boys. Their adoptive mother, whom I will refer to as Previous Jacob Lady, wanted them to be born on the Island so that she could raise one of them to become the new protector of the Island when her time would be over. I assume she required fresh babies to ensure their purity and Goodness would not be corrupted – corrupted by anyone other than her, that is.

Previous Jacob Lady’s actions shed a bit of light on Ben and his less evil actions. Ben also stole a baby and raised her as his own; however, he did not kill the baby’s biological mother as Previous Jacob Lady, the original baby thief, did. Ben always had some good in soul, even in his evil days.

Young Man in Black (Boy in Black), guided by the ghost of his dead biological mother, learned that he and his brother Jacob came from across the sea – a place Previous Jacob Lady told them doesn’t exist, and would have been members of the community on the other side of the island with the people who Previous Jacob Lady believed were evil and dangerous. Young Man in Black became determined to live amongst his people and get off the island. As I’ve suggested before, Man in Black was truly trapped on the Island, held prisoner against his will.

Previous Jacob Lady gave her adoptive sons quasi-immortality, and ensured that they could not hurt each other. Clearly, this is why Man in Black/The Smoke Monster could not kill Jacob, and had to find a loophole to do so. Previous Jacob Lady provided these precautions because one of her sons was required to continue the family business of protecting the Island, or more specifically, protecting the Light of the Island. The Light, she explained, is the light within each person; it is some kind of life force, without which, perhaps life could not exist (I wasn’t quite clear on what would happen if that Light were to be extinguished). We learned that the power of that Light is what drives the giant wheel that sends people off the island while moving the island. Man in Black and his people built that wheel so that Man in Black could escape from the Island.

However, Previous Jacob Lady kept him from succeeding. While it is clear that she needed one of her sons to remain on the Island to protect the Light, it is not clear why both sons were required to remain there. As Jacob noted, Previous Jacob Lady loved Man in Black more, and wanted him to be the heir to her throne. Perhaps that is why she kept Man in Black from leaving the Island, and perhaps that is why she murdered all of his people (well, that and they knew about the Light and how to harness it to get off the island). The evil actions committed by Previous Jacob Lady brought forth the evil within Man in Black; driven by vengeance, he murdered his adoptive mother. Evil spread, as Jacob, who could not murder his brother, avenged his adoptive mother’s death by throwing his brother into the Light. Previous Jacob Lady had told Jacob that going into the Light would result in a fate worse than death, and when Jacob threw his brother in the Light, he learned what that fate would be; Man in Black became The Smoke Monster, which it seems might be the concentrated Evil aspects of Man in Black. We now know why Man in Black wanted to kill Jacob. He sought vengeance for forcing him to live an eternity as The Smoke Monster, trapped on the Island.

The Reason for Everything: The Island’s Purpose

Jacob previously explained what I previously postulated: that the Island exists to contain Evil, and to keep it from spreading throughout the Earth. However, we learned in this episode that while that is technically true, it is more accurate to say that the Island contains the Light and the Good of the Earth. If that Good Light is destroyed, Evil will be unleashed throughout the world. Evil Darkness does not live on the Island, Good Light does.

You Have a Choice

Despite Jacob’s love and loyalty to his adoptive mother, he did not want the job of Protector of the Light. However, this man (or divine entity) who believed that we always have a choice, was left with no choice, as Previous Jacob Lady stated, and so Jacob reluctantly accepted the job that was meant for his brother. Perhaps this forced choice drove his belief in free will. Just as he wanted to believe that people could be good, he wanted to believe that people have free will; Jacob optimistically believed that people would ultimately choose Good over Evil; his brother and mother believed the opposite. Jacob spent much of his quasi-eternal life bringing people to the island to prove his point, and thus far, it seems several of our special and less special characters have chosen Good over Evil, even after all hope for Good was gone, as was the case for Ben and Sayid. Jacob, it seems, might have been right.

Good v. Evil: It Isn’t Black and White

The black and white imagery in the Jacob v. Man in Black dichotomy did not indicate that either was good or evil, but rather, it represents the good and evil within each of them, as well as within each person. It is suggestive of the evil actions people take despite good intentions. Some people, including Previous Jacob Lady, Jacob, Richard, Widmore, Ben, and perhaps Others that we have not known, would do anything to protect the Island and its Light. Man in Black would do anything to escape the Island that shackled him. Sayid and Dogen would do anything to save a loved one. Countless people in real life would do anything in the name of the G-d they believe in.

The black and white imagery also represents the good and evil of the Island. The Island is the epitome of Good, yet so many people and divine entities have done horribly evil things in the Island’s defense. Additionally, the Good Light of the Island created the evil Smoke Monster from the good Man in Black, and probably had something to do with Sayid’s evil infection. Finally, the Good of the Earth could be destroyed if the Good Light of the Island is extinguished, and Evil would be unleashed throughout the world. Therefore, perhaps the evil actions people and divine entities take to protect the Light are justified in terms of the big picture; but are murder and annihilation ever justifiable? Lost teaches us that nothing and no one is purely good or purely evil, but everything and everyone contains both in one way or another; nothing is black and white.

The Motives of Man in Black

We now understand Man in Black/The Smoke Monster/Fake John Locke’s Devil-like ways. He lies, he manipulates, and he appeals to human greed, as the means to the end that he so desperately wanted – the freedom that he needed. Greed and selfishness, the qualities he and his adoptive mother despise in man, the human qualities that he takes advantage of to serve his own purpose, overtook Man in Black. He no longer cares if the Light is protected; he is only interested in his own freedom. He has already arranged for the murder of his brother Jacob, the protector of the Light, and he attempted to arrange for the murder of the candidates who would replace Jacob. If he succeeds in causing the deaths of each of the candidates, perhaps he will be free to leave the Island, or perhaps he will remain trapped on it for eternity. Even if he does attain his freedom, if the Light is left unprotected, darkness would fill the Earth, and perhaps the world could even end. Man in Black’s freedom could mean the end, even for him. Perhaps that is what he wants; perhaps the eternal life of The Smoke Monster is not a life worth living.

Jacob v. Man in Black: Differences

I have spoken of the similarities and differences between Jacob and Man in Black in the current blog posting as well as in previous ones, but I believe there is one essential difference that was elucidated when we first saw the two divine men and expanded upon in "Across the Sea." Jacob believes people are generally good, while Man in Black believes people are generally selfish, greedy, and destructive. Jacob cares about people and wants them to be good, while Man in Black doesn’t care because he doesn’t believe they can be good. That is why Man in Black doesn’t appear to have remorse for killing people as a means to his end, while Jacob has remorse when bad things have to happen to good people. Alternatively, perhaps Man in Black did care about people, until his crazy adoptive mother killed all his people. He didn’t seem to like that, yet he doesn’t seem to have a problem killing countless people as The Smoke Monster. Perhaps then, as The Smoke Monster, he no longer cares; perhaps The Smoke Monster is the Evil within the Man in Black, like the infection was the evil within Sayid’s soul.

Man in Black lived amongst people despite his adoptive mother’s instructions to the contrary. Perhaps she was correct, in that he became corrupted, though his true corruption came at the hands of Previous Jacob Lady herself. Jacob never lived amongst the people, and when the people came to him, they killed him (well, Ben killed him). Again, Previous Jacob Lady was correct, in that the people would hurt Jacob. However, Ben’s actions were driven directly by Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black, who, as I just stated, became corrupt with Evilness at the hands of Previous Jacob Lady. She, rather than the people she called evil and destructive, indirectly caused the destruction of her adopted sons.

Is the Man in Black the Smoke Monster?

On a lighter note, I think I might understand why the producers of Lost claimed that Fake John Locke is not the Man in Black. Man in Black is dead, and perhaps The Smoke Monster is not his full essence, but only a part of what remains of him. Thus, while one could certainly argue that The Smoke Monster is the Man in Black, one could also argue that if The Smoke Monster is not the whole Man in Black, then it/he is not The Man in Black; that is, the part is not equal to the whole. However, regardless of how you look at it, Man in Black and The Smoke Monster are clearly of the same spirit.

The Little Boy in the Jungle

I believe this episode might have answered the question of who that little boy in the jungle was. I think it must’ve been Young Jacob; he seemed very concerned with following rules, as both brothers were. Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black feared him because he represented his lost innocence, and his lost Goodness. He represented a time before Man in Black knew of his adoptive mother’s evil actions – a time before he knew of his own evil potential.

Jacob’s Travels

This episode made me wonder how Jacob goes off the island so frequently. I had assumed he just magically appeared wherever he needed to, however, this episode suggests that Jacob, Man in Black, and possibly Previous Jacob Lady were unable to leave the island. Perhaps Jacob changed the rules, or perhaps he used the wheel that Man in Black wanted to use to escape, and that Ben and Real John Locke used to move the island and leave. Perhaps as Protector of the Light, Jacob does have the power to supernaturally and Sabrina-the-Teenage-Witch-ily pop in wherever he wants to be. We don’t know if Previous Jacob Lady ever left the Island, so we don’t know what the rules are in that regard.

I apologize for the plethora of plot summary in this blog posing. I think I needed to write all that to help me work through it all. Lost is exhausting.

UPDATE May 15, 2010
I thought of more things after posting this, so here is a supplemental posting.

UPDATE May 17, 2010

I wrote a third blog posting about this episode.

SPOILER ALERT – Lost Season 6 “The Candidate”

Noooooooooooooooooo! Worst episode EVER!!!!!! I hate Lost!

I’m lying – I still love Lost, but omg, how could they do this to us??? I know it’s not real, allegedly fiction and all, but HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO US?????

Omg, I don’t know what to do with myself. I'm going to read the Entertainment Weekly thing about this episode. I haven't been reading the Lost blogs this season, except for bits and pieces when I’m confused, because I wanted to keep my Lost watching pure and my blog different and not influenced by others. I figured I might read them after the show is over and maybe write about them then. However, I have to read this one, to help me grieve.

I have only read the beginning of Doc Jensen’s EW article so far, and he explains why they did this to us. Apparently, the producers wanted to show us that they have the power to decide who lives and who dies; in other words, they wanted to play G-d, which, as Flanders said on The Simpsons this week, is the most evil thing you can do. Of course, the article doesn’t say all that; it just says the producers wanted to show people that they are willing to kill anyone off. I see through to their evil ways.

If you haven’t seen this week's episode of Lost, “The Candidate” yet, you shouldn’t be reading this, but if you have, then you know that Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Lapidus were killed off. As I watched Sun and Jin die, I thought to myself (though not aloud as usual), "Do 'Jin and Sun' mean 'Romeo and Juliet' in Korean?” We just watched the most wonderful reunion ever between Sun and Jin, and then they went and killed them. But on the bright side, at least they did get to be reunited before they died together, and at least they are probably and hopefully going to continue to live in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways.

When I mentioned my Romeo and Juliet thought to a friend, she wondered what Sun and Jin actually do mean in Korean. I googled, and I found a blog where someone links the names with the numbers on the cave wall with the corresponding psalms. It's really interesting. In it, it says that Jin means gold, Sun means goodness, and Kwon means authority. I’m not sure if they are translating from Korean, but those meanings definitely fit well with the characters; Sun and Jin are as good as gold, and are filled with goodness….I mean “were.” :-(

The author of that blog suggests that Sawyer will be the next Jacob, because the name James is derived from Jacob, which, as I’ve discussed previously, means “supplanter.” However, the author also provides the psalm that corresponds to the number associated with Hurley on the cave wall, a psalm that states, “What is man that you are mindful of him...You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands.” Clearly, that provides further evidence for my Hurley-is-the-New-Jacob theory, assuming that Jacob is not G-d, as I’ve suggested, but is a divine force that answers to a higher being, and that protects the world from evil. Of course, the author of that blog states that not all the characters fit nicely with the corresponding psalms, and the author also clearly states that the ones that do could very well be the result of coincidence.

The title of the episode, “The Candidate,” was completely misleading; I was all excited because I thought my theory that Hurley will be named as the new Jacob would finally be confirmed. However, this episode had nothing to do with naming the new Jacob at all, NOTHING! Well, it did eliminate some people as potential candidates, and Hurley was not eliminated, so at least it didn’t disprove my theory.

I don’t even know why they named the episode “The Candidate,” except that Jack in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways says that New Reality Real John Locke is a candidate for a new surgery that could allow him to possibly walk again, but that is not sufficient criteria to name the whole episode “The Candidate.” Thus, this is more evidence that the producers of Lost are evil. Obviously, my accusations of evilness stem directly from my grief and sadness for the loss of several beloved characters. I probably don't really believe the Lost producers are actually evil.

Real New Reality John Locke sort of disproved one of my smaller theories. I spoke of his acceptance of his disability, which allowed him to move on with his life, and I linked to another blog that suggested that he did not want Jack to fix him because clinging to potentially false hope would not allow him to accept his disability. We learned in this episode, however, that he insisted on remaining disabled in order to punish himself. In the New Reality/Flash-Sideways, Anthony Cooper didn’t defenestrate his son; rather, Locke was flying a plane with his father as his first passenger and crashed, causing Anthony Cooper to be far more crippled than Locke would become. Are you still stuck on “defenestrate”? I never thought I would have an opportunity to use that rather awesome word; it means to throw something out a window. Anyway, it turns out that Locke accepted his disability (which did allow him to move on with his life), but can’t accept the loss of his vegetable father.

A few characters in the New Reality/Flash-Sideways have had visions and such of the reality we are familiar with, and now New Reality John Locke can be added to that list. As he was waking up while still in the hospital after Jack fixed the new problems Desmond caused when he crashed into Locke, Locke muttered something about pushing the button, and wishing that Jack had believed him. Of course, Jack later says he wished Locke would believe him when he said he could fix his disability and that he doesn’t need to punish himself.

I don’t believe Jack has had any visions of the reality we are familiar with; however, he is noticing the many strange coincidences involving himself and the other passengers of Oceanic 815, since he keeps running into them. Much like in the reality we are familiar with, Jack is beginning to believe in something bigger than himself and science.

I mentioned previously that Jack learned to follow and trust other potential leaders, thereby adding to his natural leadership skills. Additionally, Hurley learned to lead, and therefore also became more well rounded. However, Sawyer has not learned to both follow and lead as his fellow candidates have. That flippin’ idiot Sawyer should have trusted Jack when the latter figured out that if the bomb were left un-tampered with, they would not die, since Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black probably cannot kill the Jacob candidates, just as he/they could not kill Jacob. This was another loophole; Fake Locke/Smoke Monster/Man in Black arranged to get the Jacob candidates to kill each other. Sawyer had to hold onto real-world logic and non-crazy thinking despite the illogical and crazy nature of their experiences and of the island.

Jack and Hurley are better men and better Jacob candidates than Sawyer is. Jack, a natural leader and a man of science, was able to let go of the rules of the life he was familiar with and accept bizarre truths and faith; he was able to let go of his need to lead and learn that trusting others and following rather than leading are necessary at times. Hurley essentially did the inverse; he overcame his lack of confidence and took on a leadership role, thus complementing his faith and willingness to follow directions. Sawyer, however, did not grow as Jack and Hurley did; he maintained his stubborn need to lead, and he refused to accept the bizarre logic of the island. He did not learn to have faith.

In this episode, we learned that Infected Sayid still has Good in his soul. Perhaps Desmond, whom Sayid did not kill after all, found it when he apparently got through to him in “The Last Recruit.” In “The Candidate,” Sayid sacrificed his own life, and therefore the unlikely possibility that Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster would follow through with his promise of retuning Nadia to him, to save his friends. Despite being infected with Evil, Sayid’s final choice was Good.

Okay, I think I feel a bit better now. Maybe I don’t need to read the rest of that EW article right now after all. I will read the rest of it after the Lost finale, probably. For now, I can remain somewhat pure.

Regarding my “Worst episode ever” proclamation above, now that I have calmed down, I can see that it was not really the worst episode ever. In terms of great TV and great drama, it was a great episode. However, in terms of content and things happening that I don’t like, “The Candidate” was indeed, the worst episode ever.

UPDATE May 8, 2010


I’ve been thinking more about Lost, and I realized a couple of things that might be obvious to some people.

Firstly, I previously assumed that Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster was recruiting people to be on Team Evil, and thus, to become indebted to this probable Devil and do his bidding. However, we learned in “The Candidate” that he was simply recruiting our special characters so that he could gather them together in a small confined space where he would arrange for them to kill each other, since he probably cannot kill them himself. In my blog posting about “The Last Recruit,” I had doubt that Jack was really Fake Locke’s last recruit; I felt that Jack would not go with Fake Locke and do his bidding. However, Jack was his last recruit; all Fake Locke needed him to do was to be in that confined space with the other candidates. Fake Locke/The Smoke Monster didn’t need to get off the island with the candidates; he needs the candidates to be dead like Jacob in order to be free. This seems so obvious now that I finally thought about it. Duh.

Secondly, in my blog posting about “Lighthouse,” I mentioned that another website noticed that Kate’s name was crossed off the list o’ candidates on the cave wall, but not on the lighthouse thingie. I wondered at the time if the cave list was created by someone other than Jacob, such as the Man in Black/The Smoke Monster/Fake John Locke. Now I realize that Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster was probably the one who crossed her name off, regardless of who made the list. Fake Locke showed the cave list to Sawyer; so clearly, he wanted to make Sawyer believe that Kate doesn’t have the protections of being a candidate, thereby allowing Fake Locke to use threats to Kate’s life to manipulate Sawyer. Sawyer, the skilled con man, was conned by Fake John Locke/The Smoke Monster/Man in Black. I’m really quite angry with Sawyer for inadvertently causing the deaths of Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Lapidus just because he stubbornly refused to trust Jack, can you tell?

Best Comedy Album EVER!

UPDATE September 29, 2010
Myq Kaplan has become a cartoon!

UPDATE August 9, 2010 (08-09-10)
Myq Kaplan was a top 5 finalist on Last Comic Standing. I un-biased-ly (impartially?) believe he was the funniest one there. He should have won.

UPDATE August 10, 2010
Some evidence for my lack of bias regarding Myq Kaplan's superior hilarity can be found at Entertainment Weekly and The Examiner. For more Myq Kaplan fun, here is an interview someone had with him.
Update: Friday August 13, 2010 (Happy Friday the 13th!): Here is another rather fantastic interview.

This blog posting is extremely biased, because I think I’m cool because I know the subject of it, Myq Kaplan. So take my over-hyping with a grain of salt, and bear in mind that I would probably feel similarly even if I didn’t know him.


One of the greatest comedy albums ever was released this week: Myq Kaplan’s Vegan Mind Meld. I could listen to it a thousand times, and, like a good Simpsons episode, I would find it funny every time.

Myq Kaplan builds jokes as a master chef might build a delicious layer cake (please note: I have never built a cake, but I have seen Alton Brown build a cake on Food Network). Every line is a delicious layer; each layer could stand alone, and the layers come together and build upon each other to form delicious hilarity. Now I want some cake.

I went to college with Myq Kaplan, but I didn’t really know him too well; I’m an excessively shy freak, so I tend not to make friends with people (or, you know, talk to them), as much as I might want to. What I did know, however, was that he is hilarious, genuinely kind, and ridiculously intelligent. Myq was in all the funniest classes that I took in college – obviously his funnies had something to do with that, unless maybe Semantics is just naturally hilarious.

When I found him on Facebook about two years ago, I was very happy to see that one of the funniest people I’ve ever encountered had become an actual stand-up comedian – everything was right with the world. At the time, he was going to be on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham. His success continued to grow; a few months ago, he was on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, and now (well, last night) he was on Comedy Central again, this time on Comedy Central Presents Myq Kaplan, which was obviously hilarious.

Myq Kaplan’s growing success brings me tremendous joy for two reasons: 1)A genuinely kind, talented, funny, and deserving person is gaining success, and 2) I know a famous person who I’ve seen on the TV three times. Therefore, as I said in the beginning of this blog posting, I think I’m so cool! Oh, also there’s a third reason: 3) His success means I get to hear and see his humor more.

Perhaps the title of this blog posting is a slight exaggeration, and perhaps it is partially motivated by some bias. However, all biases aside, Myq Kaplan and his CD are really quite funny.