Lost - Season 6: Episode 4 [The Substitute]

So, episode 4 of Season 6. “The Substitute”, featuring Locke.

Let me start off (as I did last time) by talking about events in the alternative world.

The Locke of this world seems a lot happier than the guy we knew. Of course his main change is the fact he’s still with Helen (who you may remember was the woman he loved but who left him because of his obsession about his father, who stole his kidney (I write this and it sounds so far fetched… But it’s all true!)). There was also mention of inviting Locke’s father to the wedding, so we can assume they are still buddies and possibly no kidney stealing took place.

He still works in the box factory (or did as the episode started). It was also owned by Hurley in the original universe as well – Hurley’s financial advisor made a comment about him buying stocks in a box factory in Tallahassee. Randy (Locke’s boss in both universes) was also Hurley’s workmate in the chicken ranch, hence why Hurley knows him.)

Artistically, the scene where Locke falls over and gets sprayed by the sprinklers is reminiscent of the scene in the first Locke episode (Walkabout) where the island first rains on him.

Away from the alternative universe now, and back with our usual bunch of fun-loving guys…

The first thing to discuss is the main talking point of the episode – the writing on the wall. And the ceiling.

Let us start with the cave. FLocke says the cave is Jacob’s home. I tend to think he’s lying. After all we know Jacob lived in the statue, and also had a holiday home in the cabin (Ilyana went to the cabin before the statue – and she seems to know a lot about Jacob). So why does Jacob need 3 homes? Is he an MP??

I tend to think it’s FLocke/Smokie’s home, and maybe the names are all the people he must eliminate to be allowed to leave?

There are a few names we know already that have been crossed out.

195 – Pace: (Charlie)

313 – Littleton : (Claire).

90 – Troup: (Gary Troup is the guy who was sucked into the engine block in the first ever episode. In Lost Folklore it was said he was an author. His novel was released posthumously, and entitled “Bad Twin” (This is a real novel that you can buy!))

233 – Jones: (Jones was the name on the uniform that young Jim Robinson was wearing when the time travelling gang met him)

And a few names that we didn’t see the numbers of.

Goodspeed : (Horace from Dharma, or possibly his son, Ethan)

Lewis: (Charlotte, who died last season)

Pickett: (Pickett was one of the nasty Others who was killed by Juliette.)

Faraday: (Daniel of course, everyone’s favourite time-travel-explaining geek)

Of course the ones we’re most concerned with are:

4 – Locke

8 – Hurley

15 – Ford

16 – Sayid

23 – Jack

42 – Sun or Jin

Recognise the number pattern? Yep, I bet you forget all about them! It’s Hurley’s lottery numbers rearing their head yet again.

What is strange is that Kate’s name is among the list anywhere…

The young boy is interesting. “You know the rules, you can’t kill him” Is the “Him” meaning Jacob and implying something bad will happen now FLocke has broken the rules, or is “Him” Sawyer as one of the candidates? Also, what are the rules? They’ve been mentioned before, when Ben went to visit Jim Robinson. Jim said “Are you here to kill me?” Ben replied “We both know I can’t do that.”

Smokie (I’m guessing) wasn’t able to kill Jacob directly, so why are Ben and Jim Robinson also included in this?

Add in the fact that Sawyer could see him (to FLocke’s amazement) and Richar couldn’t….

So with all that done and dusted, we bid farewell to episode 4….

4 down, 14 to go…

Lost - Season 6: Episode 3 [What Kate Does]

Episode 3: “What Kate Does” – Featuring Kate.

The title of this episode mirrors the season 2 episode called “What Kate Did”

Starting with the alternative world firstly, nice to see Dr Artz once more, and uttering the immortal “I’m walking here!” line. Also fans of Heroes may have spotted the Puppet Master driving the cab. Pity he didn’t call Claire “Barbie”!

So, this episode starts to reinforce the idea that “Whatever happened Happened” that Dan Faraday kept spouting. Claire’s baby will always end up being called Aaron; Kate will always be involved in Aaron’s birth and of course Ethan will always be involved in the birth.

Ethan! “Wait a moment, he wasn’t called Ethan Goodspeed before was he?” I hear you cry.

No, he wasn’t. In the original universe he was called “Ethan Rom” (being an anagram of “Other Man”). He was of course born to Horace and Amy Goodspeed (in case you forgot, Amy (Michelle from 24) was the woman Sawyer and gang saved from The Others and took to Dharma HQ in the past, which enabled them to stay with Dharma. Amy married Horace (Tooms from X-Files) and the baby was delivered by Juliette.)

Nice joke from him by saying “I don’t want to stick you full of needles” – which is sort of what he did in the other universe…

Claire’s adopting family is curious. The surname is different in this universe, and given the way Lost works it wouldn’t surprise me to find later that the husband who ran away is someone we already know. I’m calling this here and now.

Other than that we didn’t learn anything new. Claire is still a nice person, Kate is still an escaped criminal with a big heart, and Artz is still a bit of a tit.

Back in the real world and things plodded along. The Japanese guy continues to speak in riddles. Why poison Sayid if Jacob told them (via the note) that if Sayid dies we are in trouble?

The comment by The Other (Aldo is his name) to kate about their last encounter was way back in Season 3, when Kate and Sawyer were breaking out of the cages. They went to rescue Karl (the kid who was being brainwashed) and Kate whacked Ando in the face with the butt of his rifle. That’s why he holds a grudge, in case you were wondering.

There are more Rosseau-style traps around, which appear to be made by Claire. Oh, and there she is at the end, looking very Rosseau-like.

Now Rosseau told Sayid about her crew, and how they got “The Sickness”. We saw this after they visited the Temple, and she was forced to kill them. Now Japanese guy is telling Jack that Sayid is infected, and so was his sister (Claire, for those who weren’t paying attention).

Could this sickness and infection be the same thing??

We will have to wait and see….

3 down, 15 to go….

Lost - Season 6: Episode 1 &2 [LA X]

So. Lost, season 6. The final season.
18 episodes to go, and counting.

Episode 1 and 2 - LA X (Parts 1 and 2).

After having Flashbacks and flash forwards and flashes in time, we now have what appears to be Flash-Sideways to an alternative reality, where the island has sunk.
This was what Dr Jack wanted all along, but maybe he never thought further than himself, that he would be the only one affected.
Now this is all based on conjecture at the moment, but if we assume the island sunk in 1977 (when Jack and gang were with the bomb), then 30 years of history will have altered.

The biggest being that the plane won't go off-course and be ripped apart, because the island isn't there any more.

We saw Desmond on the plane, his must be the biggest alteration. If you remember, he was originally stranded on the island when his boat crashed into it. What was he doing in the boat in the first place? He was taking part in a race. Why? To impress Penny's dad.
The same Jim Robinson who (presumably?) died when the island sank.
This gives 2 possibilities.
1: Penny was already conceived, met Desmond and they had no blockage in the way of their relationship.
2: Penny was never born.

Either way, Desmond has been in the "normal" world (ie: Not the island) for the past few years.

Other changes that seem to have occured:
- Hurley is now Lucky and not unlucky.
Once again, we can presume that he was always fated to win the lottery, and this time the numbers he used would have been gained by another means. Because without the island to constantly stream the numbers over the radio waves, his mate couldn't hear them, go mad and end up locked up with Hurley reciting the numbers.

- Shannon decided to stay in Australia.
Originally, Shannon had been an relationship with an abusive man - Bryan - and Boone went to Australia to help her. She went running to him after being attacked, they (Boone and Shannon) ended up having sex, and she returned to LA with him.
I have no idea why this chain of events could be altered...

- Jin and Sun aren't married.
When jin is asked to step into the office at the airport, Sun is addressed as "Ms. Paik". Now it's known that Korean women don't take the surname of their husbands, but Sun has been called "Mrs. Kwon" on several occasions - notably by the doctor she had the affair with.

- Sayid is now Iranian, not Iraqi.
I hope this is just a production error, but Sayid's passport clearly said "Iranian" on it.... I'll find a screenshot in a few mins. I seriously hope this is a production error.
However, it does appear he's still searching for Nadia.

- Locke's walkabout..
This is an interesting one. He describes it for Boone, and almost sounds like he really did it. Hell, he looks happy enough about it, and not the bitter twisted man we saw in the flashbacks.
However, if he did go the walkabout, why is he on the plane?
He was originally on the plane because he was denied the walkabout and caught the first plane home. Had he gone on it, he wouldn't be on the plane. Unless he went a week earlier....?
Also, what was his inspiration for going?
In the original timeline he was pushed into going by Mr. Abaddon, who was working on orders from Jim Robinson. With Jim dead, Abaddon would have no reason to push Locke into going... You get the idea.

There were some interesting nods of the head to previous things:
- Rose telling Jack it'll be alright - the same speech he gave her in the pilot episode.
- Boone saying he would stick with Locke if the plane crashed
- Sawyer looking after Kate, despite not knowing her.

It was also nice to see Artz and Frogurt again.
Artz (the guy who recognised Hurley as owner of the Chicken place) , for those who forgot him was the science teacher from Season 1, who went with the gang to get dynamite from the black rock and famously told everyone that dynamite was totally safe and BANG, leading to one of myall time favourite Hurley quotes: "Dude. You got some Artz on you."
Frogurt (the guy who told Kate there was a cue for the taxis) was first mentioned in the episode when Bernard was making the giant SOS on the beach, and first seen in Season 4. He owned a chain of frozen yogurt stores, hence his nickname. He was the first person killed by the flaming arrows.

So, with the alternative reality out of the way we can now turn our attention to the "normal" timeline.

We pretty much got confirmation that Fake Locke is the Smoke Monster.
We also got confirmation that Hurley really can see and interact with dead people. Up until now all he'd seen could be put down to madness, but with Jacob appearing and telling him things Hurley couldn't possibly know, it's got to be given that Hurley is NOT mad.

Why was Jacob so concerned about Sayid and didn't seem to give a fig about Juliette who was also dying at the time? This has to be because of the temple.
Now the Temple has been mentioned several times before. Jin of course went there in the past with the French team. Also interesting to Mortand's corpse. Mortand was first mentioned during the trek to the Black Rock to get Dynamite, when Rouseau said one of her team had his arm ripped off. We saw it happen in Season 5 as he was dragged off by Smokie.
Juliette also took young Ben there after he had been shot, although Richard said Ben would "lose his innocence and his memory, and forever be one of us."

The people we meet at the temple are of course the rest of The Others. They were sent there by Ben near the end of Season 4. Ben later describes it as "Possibly the safest place on the island."

The healing baths are interesting. The water has changed colour. Could this be due to Jacob's death?
And of course Sayid's death and rebirth... It could be speculated that Jacob is now inside Sayid. However I disagree because Smokie doesn't inhabit the actual bodies of those he's impersonating.

Way back in Season 1, locke mentioned to Walt that he had seen the Monster and said it was beautiful; he describes it as being white, which is a continuation of the Black/White theme from the early days.
Way back in the first episode, Locke starts to explain the rules of Backgammon to Walt. He says "Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark" Could it be this is what Jacob and Smokie are doing? Could the white smoke be Jacob in smoke form?

Fake Locke's comments to Richard were interesting too. "Free of the chains". Maybe it indicates that Richard was a slave on the Black Rock ship, or maybe he just meant a metaphorical freeing from the chains of Jacob's rules/orders.

We also know that the two parties (Richard/Ben/Sun etc, and Jack/Sawyer/Kate/etc) are finally all together in the same time and space. The flare fired off at the temple was seen at the beach.
The only people we don't know about now are Rose and Bernard and Vincent.
There is of course the mystery of the 2 dead bodies in the cave (also from Season 1), who were found with one black stone and one white stone.
Jack, at a rough guess, said they were between 40-50 years old. It could be Rose and Bernard, although the date seems off (it would only be 30 years if they died immediatly). I guess we'll wait and see with that one.

Just to add some interesting in-jokes:
On the plane, when Jack asks for a pen... he says he had one but now can't find it (because kate stole it when she bumped into him).
In the pilot episode, Boone is trying to help Jack and getting in the way, so Jack sends him to find a pen to help open the airway of someone. Boone returns later on with a fistful of different pens.

Not that it's that important, just funny

So, 2 episodes down. 16 left to go...

Lost - Season 5 Finale

Well that's another series over and done with, and now my dissection.

First of all we have Jacob and his mate. Let's call him "Nemesis" for now.
It would appear that Jacob and Nemesis are not human and as such are unable to kill one another.
It looks like (and this is all just theories of course) they live alone on the island. Jacob wants to let humanity find the island, but Nemesis doesn't want them to. Nemesis believes Mankind will just come, take what they want, destroy the island, kill things and then leave.
Jacob doesn't think they will. He believes they (him and Nemesis) and mankind can live happily side by side.
Nemesis says he will find a way to kill Jacob.

Jump forward many years and Jacob is meeting some familer faces.
You will notice he touches each of them.
Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack, Hurley, Locke, Sun and Jin.

Now you may remember (if you cast your mind back several years) to a so-called list from Jacob. Ben has mentioned it several times. Juliette has seen it, as did Mikhail (the eye-patch guy).
Juliette told Jack that he is not on the list, and Mikhail told Kate, Sayid and Locke they are not on the list.
So whatever this list is, it does NOT contain the people he has touched.
It could also be argued at this point that Jacob brought Locke back from the dead after the fall.

Also worthy of note is the fact Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Locke, Sun and Jin were all met before they encountered the island, but Sayid and Hurley were contacted after they left (but before they returned).

Now, we come to the big revelation of the story. Locke's body.
The discussion in the Statue place pretty much confirms that the entity that we knew as Locke is in fact Nemesis, and his "loophole" to killing Jacob is to get someone else to do it for him.

Now I want to take this further. I believe that Nemesis is in fact the Smoke Monster.
We have seen Smokey take on human form before. He did it with Echo and his brother. Smokey also appeared as Alex when Ben went on trial. Curiously, Locke appeared to vanish during the whole time Smokey was out, only re-appearing once Smokey had vanished.

I also think that Christian Shepard (Jacks Dad in case you forgot) is also the Smoke Monster.
If Jacob lives in the foot-house and NOT the cabin, then why did Christian appear in the cabin?

Think back on the series of events.

From series 4:
Locke (the real Locke) goes to see Jacob, in Jacobs cabin where he lives - or so Locke thinks. Inside the cabin he meets Christian, who tells him he is speaking for Jacob, and that he has to move the island. Locke goes outside and tells Ben "We have to move the island".
Ben then turns the wheel, is banished and starts the island jumping in time.

This season:
Locke meets Richard, who tells him he has to get the other losties back, and has to die.
Christian appears to Locke and tells him that he said HE had to turn the wheel, not anyone else. Locke turns the wheel and goes to round up the wayward losties. He then tries to kill himself, but Ben beats him to it.
Back on the island, Nemesis assumes Locke form. Ben believes this is Locke reborn, and goes to stand trial.
Nemesis, in the form of Smokey/Alex, tells Ben to follow "Locke" and do whatever he says.
Nemesis/Locke tells Richard to tell Locke that he has to die.
Nemesis/Locke asks Richard to take him to Jacob, where he convinces Ben to kill him.