Why I loved the series finale

A friend and I were sitting around the house lamenting over our LOST withdrawal when we decided to watch the finale again. Full disclosure: I have the series finale permanently saved on my Sally TiVo (yes that’s my TiVo’s name) and I’ve watched it 5 times prior to this latest viewing. Something about this viewing gave me the closure I finally needed to begin blogging about the finale.

The first time I saw the finale I was *extremely* upset that the writers did not answer some of our most pressing questions. Subsequent viewings made me appreciate the finale more but I still didn’t want to admit it was over and there were no more episodes left to answer my questions. I even dreaded blogging about the finale because writing about the episode meant it really was over. Well step aside Smokey Anger and Jack Denial because I’m flash-forwarding to acceptance.

For the most part I really liked the series finale but I still have some Mr. Eko-size issues with it. I think the only fair way to deal with my dual feelings is to give both my good and bad feelings their own blog. Let’s start with what I loved about the episode, or the white blog.

I loved how the “real” timeline was wrapped up and how things were tied up on the island. Jack sacrificing himself for the island was the perfect ending to his charter arch. Jack started as the reluctant leader, became the d-bag man of science who wouldn’t listen to reason, then became the blind follower of faith to finally become the man that finally figured everything out. The irony is that over the course of the series Jack was both the man of science (not admitting there was anything out of the ordinary about the island) and the man of faith (blowing up the nuke because it seemed like his purpose) but it wasn’t until Jack understood that there was a science to the island’s magic (figuring out that the island wouldn’t kill Richard) that we began to love Jack again. Dear Jack, congratulations on the character rebound, on saving the world, and for crying twice in the finale and it not pissing me off.

Believe it or not Jack’s perfect character wrap-up wasn’t even my favorite part of the “real” timeline ending…how bout’ that Hurley!! Part of me was really suspicious when we were told who Jacob’s successor was one episode before the series finale. To the fellow answer-cynics in the crowd it probably didn’t come as a huge surprise that Jack didn’t remain the final protector of the island. That being said, Hurley is the perfect island protector because he was the only character on LOST that didn’t have an agenda. He wasn’t trying to get back to anyone off-island, he wasn’t trying to fulfill an ambition and most importantly he was always looking out for everyone else. Ben becoming his number 2 was also the perfect ending for that character. Ben finally became more than magic-island middle management and a Hurley-Ben leadership allows us to debate whether that would be a better spin-off than the Sawyer-Miles buddy cop show.

And speaking of Timeline-X, I loved that all my questions about that timeline were answered. Yes I have problems with that timeline being purgatory and not meaning anything to the real timeline, BUT I never imagined in 10 Jacob lifetimes that all my Timeline X questions would be answered. All the differences and unbelievable Sun-survivals were explained by the fact that the timeline was completely made up by our Losties. What’s better is that Alt-X gave us insight into our favorite character’s regret’s. Desmond regretted that he was never accepted by Charles Widmore. Eloise Hawking wished that she didn’t stop her son from playing the piano and regretted pushing him to a fate where she would eventually kill him. Jack wished he had a kid. Locke wanted to be with Helen and on good terms with papa con man. We also finally understand why most of the Losties was happier in this alternate reality. Some people have asked me to explain why the island was at the bottom of the ocean in this alternate reality and I usually reply that I think most Oceanic Flight 815 passengers wouldn’t have shed a tear if that island was sunk, especially the ones that didn’t make it off the island.

Finally, it wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t bullet-point many of the things I loved about the finale:

• Richard Alpert get’s gray hair!
• I like that *some* of the original losties finally got off the island. I wonder what the season 1-vegas odds were those particular characters making it off the island.
• Turns out what happened, happened after all. The Losties caused the incident all along. Again, who could have called that back in season 2?
• I’m man enough to admit I teared up during some of the flashbacks.
• Kiss me James. You got it blonde…
• Once Hurley had his awakening you could see that the character was played as though he was the island protector for a bunch of centuries, great touch.
• Sawyer telling Smokey that there’s a new Jacob in town.
• Frank FINALLY reminding those idiots that he’s a pilot and having him fly the plane off the island is a much better plan than blowing up their best escape route.
• Sun saying “I remember” while getting her ultra-sound. Really any scene with Sun, Jin, Sawyer and Juliet was great.
• Kate telling Jack that she really missed him. That line is so much more powerful the second time you watch it because you realize that Kate escaped the island and likely lived a long life where she missed Jack, while Jack died shortly after they parted.
• Jack and Smokey arguing over whether John Locke was foolish or not.
• Ben apologizing to Locke for killing him. Awkward much?
• And finally, Jack’s eye closing was the perfect way to end the series. In addition to that, how about season 6 beginning with Jack appearing in purgatory on the imaginary flight 815, akaJack’s first moment after his death, and season 6 ending with Jack closing his eyes which would be his last moment of life and would occur moment’s before Jack appears on the imaginary flight 815. Nice touch.

In closing, I like that we got one more moment with all our favorite characters and we got to see them in a little bliss. I mostly liked the finale and happen to like it more and more every time I watch it. I will post my black blog soon detailing all the problems I had with the finale. Stay tuned.

LOST Chance To Answer Questions??

If I don't get some answers I'm gonna smash this bottle

It’s almost here. This will be my last post before the Series Finale and I wanted to quickly recap last week’s episode and then leave you with questions I would like answered in Sunday’s Answer-palooza. Let me start by saying I LOVED “What They Died For”. It answered a bunch of questions and it had a story that moved. Timeline X has become really compelling although I still have no idea what’s going on there. Well no time for love Dr. Jones, onto the quick hits:

• Check, check, check! Got 3 things right this week! Jack is the new Jacob, Kate was crossed off cause she became a mommy & Jacob was communicating with Widmore off-island. Hello getting things right, oh how I’ve missed you
• After putting in all that hard work to redeem himself, did Other Ben undo all that or does he have some master plan with the walk-talkies? The last thing Smokey  said was that he is going to blow up the island, which means he’s going back on his word to leave the island to Other Ben. Shocked huh?
• Could Other Ben end up killing both protectors of the island? Watch out Jack, he’s coming for ya…
• So everyone in Timeline X is going to end up at this recital huh? Are they all going to have a “holy shit” moment and remember each other? Kumbaya, we’re alive and much happier people! Somehow I don’t see it…
• It’s Interesting that Hurley from Timeline X seems to remember everything since he recognized Anna Lucia
• You know my policy, until I see Richard’s body, he ain’t dead
• Is Jack going to learn all the secrets of the island from drinking the magic water? Jacob wasn’t told the secrets but he learned them somehow

I think the entire series comes down to this question: who is the better con man, Jacob or Smokey? Both seem pretty omnipotent and can see several steps ahead but only one of them is going to win this game. For instance you could say Jacob was dumb because he let the info about his Desmond-failsafe plan fall into Smokey’s smoke-hands via Charles Widmore. BUT you could also argue that maybe that was all part of Jacob’s master plan, we just haven’t seen it come to fruition yet. Jacob really gives me the impression that he knows all the moves Smokey is going to make, so the fact that ALL of Jacob’s plans seem to go wrong only convinces me that it’s on purpose. I think Jacob is pulling the ultimate long con on Smokey and we’re about to learn his full mind blowing plan on Sunday night.

For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, you know that I love to make bold predictions, so here goes nothing (and I really mean that):

• Desmond will destroy the island which will destroy Smokey. Jacob purposefully gave Widmore bad info because he knew Widmore would cough it up to Smokey
• The frozen donkey wheel will allow Hurley & Kate to leave the island. Claire & Sawyer will die and I will weep like a little girl
• We will learn a lot about Eloise Hawking. Maybe a centric episode?
• Juliet is the mother of Jack’s son and will finally get that coffee with Sawyer. This one is a slam dunk at this point right?
• The regular timeline will become Timeline X when Desmond blows up the island. The nuke just got the Losties back to their normal time
• Eloise Hawking will turn out to be the host from Tales of the Crypt. I’m serious about this one

If only I knew what the island had in store for me

Finally, I wanted to end this entry with a list of questions that I would like answered in the upcoming 2.5 hours. I know most of my readership hates commenting but I’d love to hear what questions you’d like answered that I missed. Here’s my first crack:

• Why did the Losties plus Juliet jump through time but not Richard and the Others? Why did only Jack, Kate, Hurley & Sayid blast back in time when 316 crashed/landed on the island?
• Why was the island on the bottom of the ocean in LA X?
• What will really happen if Smokey gets off the island?
• Why does turning the frozen donkey wheel put you in Tunisia?
• How does Eloise Hawking know so much?
• What is the origin of the source and how did Jacob & Smokey’s mom learn how to use it? How does the source let you make rules?
• Why did Jacob’s cabin move?
• Why do ash and sonar fences keep Smokey at bay?
• Why did pregnant mothers all of the sudden start dying on the island?
• Why did Other Ben tell Widmore, “you know I can’t kill you”. What rules govern the leader of the Others?
• What did The Others believe they were doing? What is their mission statement?
• Who was friggen shooting at Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles, and Charlotte when they were bouncing around in time?
• The island moves but there is still a Dharma food drop?
• Why was Walt so friggen special?

So there you have it, nothing left to do but wait! See ya in another life brotha!

Here comes the Man in Black

This place is death

Greetings fellow Losties. Rumors that I was captured by the Smoke Monster have been overstated, although that would have been a much cooler story than me working 16 hour days. I’ve returned just in time to do a mad recap of the last few episodes and to run a few theories by you before tonight’s widely anticipated episode. Just a warning, if you’ve been hiding under whatever rock Ben & Richard Alpert are under and don’t want to know who tonight’s episode is about please read no further. As always, I never post spoilers and am only going by last week’s previews..

I have that same feeling I had before the Richard Alpert episode only there is even MORE anticipation…a Smoke Monster centric episode! And if we’re really lucky it’ll be a Smokey & Jacob centric episode. Somewhere around the age of 12, I am sad to say, I stopped feeling that Christmas zeal that kept me from sleeping on xmas eve (Dear Santa bring me a Super Nintendo). Well that feeling is back in spades. Somehow I was able to get a few hours of sleep last night, however, I don’t know how I’ll get through work today (is it 9pm yet?) Ok now what I’ve missed…

I won’t even try to cover the last 3 episodes in a single blog considering we had 3 main deaths and a Desmond episode. First the deaths. I have criticized this show as being afraid to kill any of the 5-6 main characters and I stubbornly stand behind that remark. As devastated as I was to see Jin & Sun die, (there may not be crying in baseball but it should be allowed in LOST) there’s still a chance they’ll live happily ever after. If Timeline X turns out to be the real timeline then they will be alive. I understand the writers can’t reveal what’s going on with Timeline X yet but the alternate timeline does take a little away from the tragedy of our favorite characters’ deaths.

As far as the deaths go, for me it ranks second to Charlie’s death in terms of most heart-wrenching. Charlie’s death was built up too long and was in the service of self-sacrifice so it felt a bit “grander”. On the other hand, as some of my LOST friends will note, I didn’t reply to text messages or answer phone calls for at least 30 minutes after the episode ended. I’m revealing to them for the first time that I was hiding behind the excuse of “I’m watching it on TIVO delay and I’ll get back to you when I’m finished”. While this was perfectly true, I still took much longer than needed to get back to them. After grieving for Jin once, I found the second time unbearable. Their daughter is an orphan and will never meet her father. Why didn’t Sun demand Jin save himself for their daughter?Damn you Jacob and your stupid island!

Last thought on the deaths, are we going to miss Sayid? After being character-assassinated for almost the entire season, he snapped out of his “no feelings” trance to spare Desmond and try to save the Losties on the sub. This brings up more questions on what it means to become infected by the Smoke Monster. I really hope they at least clear that matter up this week. It also speaks to my biggest grip against season 6: stop making my favorite characters lame!

Ok, I think I bitched enough, especially since the past few episodes have been awesome. I loved the Hurley and Libby re-kindlement, loved the Desmond episode and I love Desmond playing the role of Jacob in Timeline X. Let me hit you with some of my thoughts from the last few episodes:

• FINALLY Timeline X has become interesting and relevant!
• Eloise told Desmond that Timeline X is a reality where everyone gets what they want. How is she able to see The Matrix? Is it real? Do Smokey & Jacob know about it? Sayid confirmed that Smokey promised to bring back Nadia. Was Smoking manipulating Sayid or was he talking about Timeline X?
• Add Desmond to my list of people I believe have been J-Touched. I can’t believe I missed the fact that he’s immune to Electromagnetic Energy. While we’re at it, Eloise was probably J-Touched too
• Why didn’t Smokey kill Desmond to being with? Why throw him down a well? I have a theory coming up on why Desmond is fatal to Smokey
• I’ll take last week’s episode as confirmation that Smokey needs all the candidates to die before he can leave the island. People have asked how he knew that some of the candidates survived and my theory is because I think he would know when he became free. If nothing else, he will likely be able to change his appearance back the form back that “Jacob stole from him”
• So whispers are dead people trapped on the island. I’ve had a tough time sorting out when a dead person was a Smokey-impersonation and when it was just a dead person. In the end I I decided that Hurley is the only one that sees real dead people, because of his power, and the rest were probably Smokey.
• How the hell is Widmore’s island intel so good?? How did he know about Desmond’s EM ability and the 100 other things he seems knows. Someone is communicating with him and I think it’s Jacob
• I think Kate was removed as a candidate because she is a mom now. She would never have put the island before Aaron. My theory falls apart when you ask about Kwon but technically Jin never met his daughter

Before I finish this blog, I need to get my Desmond theory on the record. I think that Smokey is Electromagnetism-incarnate when he is the black smoke thing and thus cannot hurt Desmond in that form. I also believe Desmond is the only person that can kill Smokey. My backup theory is that the pockets of energy on the island give Smokey his power and Desmond will either have to use those pockets to kill Smokey or destroy the pockets to kill Smokey. Either way, Dez is gonna do in Smokey.

Finally, I just want to say something about Jacob. Since the Richard Alpert episode I’ve hated Jacob. If Jacob is containing Smokey on the island in order to save humanity, then Jacob is a huge asshole. Follow me here. If manipulating a human into killing Jacob is the only loop-hole to free Smokey, then why does Jacob take that risk of bringing people to the island? He told Richard it was because he wants to prove to Smokey that people can be good. If that’s the real reason than Jacob is even worse than Smokey because he’s risking the destruction of humanity just to prove a stupid point. Dear Jacob, stop bringing people to the island, everyone is happier in Timeline X without you and your stupid island, Love Finally Lost. P.S. you suck. All that said, it does not explain: “It only ends once, the rest is just progress”.

Next up on Finally Lost, we’ll discuss the big episode and talk a little about all these LOST Finale parties going on. Any guesses on who I’ll be dressing up as??

Loosen up my buttons baby

That's exactly what the Pussycat Dolls had in mind

Kudos again to the writers for the title “The Package”. In addition to being everyone’s favorite euphemism for men’s “junk”, it kept up with the trend of having meanings in both Timeline Prime and Timeline X. Like a lot of you I was pretty bored by “The Package” which is disappointing because I am usually a fan of Sun/Jin-centric episodes. This episode perfectly captured my 2 biggest problems with this season: 1) for the most part I don’t care about Timeline X and 2) cramming the entire island mythology in the last 17 episodes really takes away from the great character developed stories we are use to.

Is it LOST-blaspheme to say I am really bored with Timeline X?? Well dude, I don’t know where it’s going so how can I get invested in it? Is Timeline X really just a season-long epilogue explaining what happens to the characters after they change time again at the end of Season 6? Is it really a first go around and something happens/happened to make Timeline Prime the “truth timeline”? Who knows and until I understand I really can’t get too invested into whether or not Jin and a shopping-obsessed/more obedient Sun get married despite Daddy Sun’s disapproval. At the end of the day, I don’t know which Timeline is “truth”, so I don’t know which one to be invested in. And before you comment on it, I will not accept that both timelines will be “truth” because that really hurts my head.

And yes it’s true, I’m complaining about too many answers. My problem isn’t so much with all the answers we are getting, but rather the pace in which we are getting them. There is something intrinsically wrong about cramming all of the answers into season 6. Did we really have to wait until the last episode of season 5 to learn that everything happening on the island is because of a battle between good and evil? And doesn’t this battle take away from the small day to day character battles we’ve been so invested in for so long? Widmore tells Jin that it doesn’t matter if he reunites with Sun because if Smokey gets off the island Armageddon is going to occur. Boy that really takes the wind from my “will Hurley will every find out that Libby was in the institution with him” sails. How can I root for a Jin-Sun reunion when I’m worried about Armageddon?  Everything takes a back seat to Armageddon…except for of course Penny and Desmond ending up together (more on that later).

Now it’s time for my weekly paragraph on why Jacob sucks and how his stupid J-touching ruins everyone’s lives. Are Jin and Sun better off in Timeline X or Timeline Prime? That’s a really tough question because neither timeline is really great to them. In Timeline Prime, I would argue they are both better people. Jin is a better person, they have a daughter sorta-together, and Sun has neutralized the threat her dad poses via her Oceanic fortune. On the other hand, they’ve been apart for 3 years, Jin’s never seen his daughter and they may be stuck on the island which would prevent them from being with their daughter. Side note, Widmore showing Jin pictures of his daughter for the first time was this season’s most touching scene to date. Tear. Now back in Timeline X, Jin is still sucky pre-island Jin, Sun doesn’t appear to be as capable of a person and Sun’s dad just had Jin deliver his own bounty pay to contract killers. P.S. How cold it is that he sent Kreamy a watch too?? I’d like to pay you $25,000 to kill the guy that’s nailin my daughter and oh, here’s a watch for your troubles. I think it’s time to award Jacob his 2nd victory, congratulations, it a tight race but you’ve made life better for TWO Losties through your J-touch powers. Note: if Jin and Sun aren’t reunited with their daughter, I’ll have to re-award this to Timeline X, assuming Sun doesn’t die from her gunshot wound.

Last point before the quick hits, it IS interesting that Smokey’s release could cause Armageddon. It would also vindicate everything Jacob’s been doing and would just make everything they’ve gone through an acceptable casualty of war. I would, however, argue against Jacob’s tactics. If Jacob keeps Smokey locked down, then why bring people to the island and risk having Smokey manipulate them into killing Jacob? I think it’s because Jacob is bored and wants to shove humanity’s goodness in Smokey’s ‘er smoke face. That makes hubris Jacob’s weakness.

And now the quick-hits:

• Jin and Sun not married?? Jacob really dangles the strings here but the more interesting question is, how is Jin not sterile in this timeline (assuming Sun’s baby is Jin’s)?? Maybe the J-touch actually made Jin sterile because a baby would have prevented them both from getting on that plane. Sun would not have taken the trip with a baby in tow and probably wouldn’t have learned English if she had a baby with Jin
• Jack is SO on board with Jacob now and there’s NO way Kate is going to convince him to leave the island. Why do you find it so easy!!??!!
• It was interesting that Jin was being held in the same room Carl was held in once upon a time (Rm 23). Does that annoying sound keep Smokey out? During my re-watch of season 3 I noticed that the screen says God loves Jacob
• I wonder what Widmore and Sun worked out during their off-island meeting. In light of that meeting, his holding Jin seems more than a coincidence, unless you buy that Tina Fey REALLY needs to know about those pockets of energy
• Speaking of those pockets, are we finally going to find out what they do? Do they give Jacob his power? Do they give Smokey his power? Do they keep Smokey at bay? Where did they come from?
• Why didn’t Widmore’s crew just kill all of Smokey’s followers? That would have been an easy way to “win the war”
• Sun can’t speak English?? Really?? Laaame
• Sun has nice boobs!
• And finally…I got really scared when Widmore talked to Jin about understanding the fact he was kept from his daughter. More than any other moment, that’s when I knew that the damn the package was Desmond. I kept saying PLEASE don’t let the package be Desmond. I’m willing to sacrifice the return of one of my favorite characters, just so he can live happily with Penny! I hate Widmore, and wonder where my girl Penny is 😦

Well, lots of thought and theories this week, let me know what you think. In a late breaking theory someone told me that all the Timeline X storylines are converging on all of the Losties going to a hospital. That might be worth exploring…

Oh Smokey You Devil

Wine and Richard Alpert get better with age

 

Sometimes in life we must patiently a long time for a final book, a final episode, a sequel or even a dreaded prequel. Sometimes that wait becomes The Phantom Menace and sometimes it becomes Dark Knight. Congratulations to the writers of LOST, the lost awaited Richard Alpert flashback was more Man in Black than Jar jar Binks. 

Answers, answers, answers, answers. It’s hard to choose one, but if I had to select my favorite reveal from this episode,  how about the fact that the island is really a huge butt plug for evil. Didn’t see that one coming. So Smokey is evil incarnate and Jacob’s job is to keep him locked away (get it) from the rest of the world. I’ve been saying for weeks that Jacob is the “good guy” and after this episode I think it’s time to read the last will and testament to those who think Smokey is the “good guy”. Time of death, 9:55pm EST.  Yes Jacob manipulates, he doesn’t give much help and he sure don’t give straight answers, but while that would make him a good LOST writer, it does not make him evil. Smokey on the other hand, kills, he corrupts and he doesn’t believe people can be good. While Smokey wants to get off the island at all costs, Jacob exists to trap MIB for the greater good. I think it’s time we all accept the fact that white is good and black is evil and the debate is over. 

Even if you are still not buying that Jacob is “good” and Smokey is “evil”, I think you have to agree that Jacob is the god figure and smokey resembles devil. Jacob takes a hands off approach and wants people to decide right & wrong on their own. Jacob chooses an intermediary to delivery his message (Richard/Moses) instead of talking directly to the people. Jacob seems only concerned with his overall plan and tells people to trust him but not question him when his plan screws them over. Full disclosure for those readers who don’t know me off-island, I am an agnostic. Thus it’s not terribly surprising that I’ve been frustrated with Jacob all season since he’s constantly displayed the qualities of an absentee god. That being said, I sure don’t want Smokey to win. 

Again, I think it’s pretty obvious that Smokey displays a lot of the characteristics typically attributed to the devil. He delivers certainty and tells you exactly what to do (kill Jacob and you WILL get your wife back). While Jacob slightly manipulates, Smokey tells huge lies. Smokey tells Richard he is dead and in hell in order to manipulate him (unfortunately Richard is unaware that this theory has been debunked by the writers). He tells Richard that his wife is alive and being held by Jacob even though dead is dead. He fakes an Isabelle kidnapping via his Smokey-impersonation powers. And he even tells Richard he’ll always take his service if he changes his mind, which is classic a George Burns (Devil) move! Yes I ‘m annoyed with Jacob for not getting personally involved and helping the cause but that just makes him an absentee father, not the devil. 

One last thought, if the island is sunk in Timeline X, does that mean Smokey is uncorked and reeking havoc?? Maybe Jacob and Smokey are both dead and that’s why Timeline X is such a better place… 

Now the quick hits… 

• It’s been officially confirmed that Smokey killed Jacob to get off the island. Score one more for the “Grand Lost Theory” that I wrote before the Season 6 premier! “Jacob stole my body.” Interesting choice of words…
• On the other hand,  My “Jacob and Smokey are aliens” and “the island is a spaceship” theories are in some serious trouble and need a good dunking in Jacob’s resurrection pool
• I think the tenet of “Dead is Dead” is something we can hold our hats on. While Jacob’s powers seem supernatural, they are not limitless. He cannot being back Isabelle from the dead and he cannot guarantee Richard will not go to hell. This tells me he is not a god. It’s interesting that Smokey offered Richard the impossible carrot of bringing back Isabelle which even further’s the “Smokey is the devil” theory.
• How long did Richard survive without food and water when he was chained up in the Black Rock!?! It seemed like weeks!
• It seems like Smokey can download people’s memories to decide how corruptible you are. Seems like he made a decision that Richard was the most corruptible of the Black Rock survivors and thus let him live. This may be why he left Locke alive in Season 1, however it doesn’t explain why he tried to pull Locke underground during “Exodus”
• Is Isabelle the first confirmed Smokey-impersonation of a dead person whose body was not on the island? Not sure if I’ve said this before but if I were him, I’d appear as a naked Juliet and just look at myself all day
• Lostapedia is now saying that the writers have confirmed the ship in “The Incident” was the Black Rock. After Jacob and Smokey’s conversation on the beach, the storm abruptly occurred. I guess Jacob used the storm to bring the ship in? I wonder if he knew he was going to wreck his statue.

So we got a ton of back story and a bunch of answers, I think that means we are set for a completely answer-free character-centric episode. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by suggesting this will be a Sun/Jin centric episode, although we haven’t had a Hurley-centric episode yet. Here’s to hoping this will be the week when our favorite Koreans reunite, and by “reunite” I mean doooz it. Hey it’s probably been a while for poor Jin…

A15–you sunk my island!

Hey guys, I wanted to do a separate blog entry on each of last week’s Q/A questions from Steam of Consciousness, but I ran out time so you’re getting it in all one blog. One of last week’s questions really got me thinking about how the island ended up underwater while Ben was able to get off the island, and I wanted to post my theory before tonight’s episode, because based on the title, this question might be answered (Engelhardt keep your mouth shut!) Unfortunately the condensement means I won’t be able to post my favorite non-Finally Lost answer, but we’ll get back on track next week.

– What is Jack’s “mission”?
Jack’s mission is to go back-to-back episodes without shedding a tear. I think Jacob’s plan has been to get all the crying out of the way early on so Jack has no tears left. This plan is foolish because like the energy pocket he destroyed, Jack’s tears are practically limitless, and unfortunately there are no nukes left on the island to stop them.

On a serious note, I think Jacob wants Jack to kill someone Unfortunately it is probably Sawyer. FYI if Jack is responsible for the deaths of Sawyer and Juliet I am going to be in the market for a new flat screen TV because metal objects will be thrown into my screen like I forgot to type in the hatch code…

– In the ‘alt’ timeline, do you think Ben, Ethan and Dogen are just regular people, or are these some undercover Others?
In order to answer this question you must first answer whether you think the nuke sunk the island. Unfortunately I flip-flop on that issue worse than Juliet deciding whether to stop/help Jack detonate the nuke (tear). Today is a “nuke sunk the island” kinda day so I’m going to work with that.

In addition to sinking the island, I think the nuke fractured time and sent our Losties back to Timeline Prime’s present, while warping everyone left on the island to Tunisia. This could explain how Ben, Dogen & Ethan all got off the island. Assuming this crazy theory is true, then I think it’s safe to say that Ben and Dogen are retired Others, while Ethan is just a regular creepy man. Dogen strikes me as someone who was an Other before 1977 and as Richard said about Ben, “He will always be one of us now”, thus they become ex-Others. Ethan was obviously too young to be an Other but he’ll always be creepy.

——– PREDICTION TIME ——–

Yes Mr. Bookie, put me in for $15,428 on the nuclear explosion causing the island to sink and jettison all the 1977 non-Losties to Tunisia. While I concede that there are surely better answers, this is the theory I’m going with because it’s the only way I can explain both the nuke sinking the island and Ben getting off the island. Sure it’s possible that the island was sunk later but that seems like a copout doesn’t it?? The nuke almost HAS to be the cause of the island’s subterranean state, right?? Just like I believed that the writers would have cheated us if the nuke didn’t reset the timeline, I also believe it would be cheating us if some other event sunk the island. Thus I’m sticking with this theory for another 12 hours until it is proven wrong. Which brings us to some interesting questions/thoughts:

• If the island sinks what happens to Jacob & Smokey? Do they die? Deviating from my theory for just a second, I believe another way the island could have sunk sans the nuclear bomb, is Smokey leaving the island. That would fit really nicely with his promise to Sayid, AND maybe Smokey leaving the island kills Jacob for good!! Hmmm, another day, another topic…I digress…
• Why is Tunisia the exit point? Widmore & Ben both seem to know about it, so what gives? Maybe Tunisia is another one of those unique pockets of EM that Eloise was talking about
• Let’s assume for a moment that the island’s titanic grave kills Jacob. Then is Jacob’s death the catalyst for all the changes we’ve seen in Timeline X? This would be proof that Jacob has done more than just “a little” touching here and there (that’s what she said). Or the catalyst for the changes might be the absence of The Other’s not implementing Jacob’s off-island instructions. Remember when a bus “just happened” to run over Juliet’s ex-husband? Was this The Other’s doing, or Jacob’s doing?
• Finally, what was the hatch “failsafe” that Desmond set off in the season-finale of season 2? It sure seemed like a nuke didn’t it? It generated an EM Pulse around the island which is a movie/TV consequence of setting off a nuke (only certain types of nukes set off EMPs in real life). So why didn’t the failsafe nuke sink the island?

I think that’s enough to think about for one entry and I’m all but certain I’ll be disproven in a just few short hours, I just hope we get an answer tonight!

Finally, I’ve continued my re-watch of LOST and I’m a third of the way through season 2 and have noticed a few more items of interest:

• Kate’s New Kid’s on the Block Lunch Box that Jacob paid for became the time capsule that Kate & Tommy Brennan used! You know the one that contained the toy airplane and their tape recording?? Am I the last one to notice this or is this new to people?
• The writers made a mistake in season 5! When the Losties are bouncing around in time, Locke sees the light from the hatch and knows it’s the night that Boone was injured. Sawyer then sees Kate deliver Claire’s baby. In season 2, Claire has have the baby one day after the hatch-light incident. woooops
• Jin and Frenchy (Russo) don’t have a scene together but they are on the beach at the same time. This occurs when Frenchy warns Claire that The Others are coming for her baby, so it’s not a huge deal that she doesn’t notice Jin. I’m keeping an eye on the Jin/Frenchy situation though…

Team Jacob or Team Smokey??

Dear LOST writers, thank you for one of the best non-season-premier/season-finale episodes of LOST ever, sincerely, Finally Lost.

WOW What an episode! So many things to question, so many things to debate. Once again I will dispense with the well thought out theories and go with raw emotional first-gut-instincts: Jacob is a huge jerk! While Smokey has been trapped on the island, Jacob has been allowed to prance around off-island giving people candy bars and NKOT lunch boxes resulting in the ruination of their lives! Don’t worry Jacob fans, I’ve got issues with Smokey too! I think the above picture is PERFECT for this debate. Thanks to my friend Maria for noting that the table is almost perfectly divided along Teams Jacob and Smokey. Richard and Ilana seem to be on the wrong side but there’s still time for them to swap. Damn those writers are good! But before before we talk discuss sides, let’s talk about last night’s episode, starting with the new DAD: Dogen.

For those of you who are OG on this blog, you’ll remember that I use to call Michael DAD for Dumb-Ass Dad. Now I happen to like Dogen and am in no way implying that he’s as annoying as Michael, but goddamn he was a DAD last night! Dear Dogen, if you thought Sayid was so bad, then why didn’t you kill him? Instead you let him live, give him a reason to have a gripe with you and then send him into your enemy’s camp so he can later turn against you. THEN when he returns from a mission you know he should have died from, you allow him back into the temple and let him kill you! Saaaayid whaaat?? Dogen, you were the only thing keeping Smokey out, why would you let yourself be killed so easily? Furthermore, I don’t understand why the story about your son made you spare Sayid’s life. Finally, what power did Jacob give you that kept Smokey out of the temple? Is it related to the ash? I don’t know if Smokey is now immune to ash or if Claire dug him a pathway before she rolled into the temple. Speaking of which…

Why did Smokey send Claire into the temple? Did she serve a purpose that I missed? And if The Others think Claire is so bad then why didn’t they kill her? Time for the bullet points:

• Did Smokey dangle the Timeline X carrot to get Sayid to join his side? It would be interesting if Smokey knows about Timeline X and if he could send Sayid there.
• Props to the writers for calling this episode Sundown. They played me for a fiddle with that episode name and a Sun-centric episode due up in the Season 1 order
• Why did Jacob tell Hurley to bring Sayid to the temple to save his life? What was on the note that Dogen read? Clearly Jacob knew that Smokey was going to kill Dogen and get into the temple because he told Hurley he wanted Hurley and Jack as far away from the temple as possible. If he foresaw that, then why did he save Sayid? Jacob might put Ben to shame with his manipulation skills…
• I FINALLY got one right! I’ve been on a Cleveland-like losing streak with my predictions for a while, but if you recall I predicted that Jacob’s death meant Smoke is free to leave the island. The second half of that prediction is that Jacob isn’t really “dead” but takes Smokey’s place as the island prisoner.
• Sayid is a badass in any reality. I was so happy to see Slingshot (Alex) killer, Kreamy, killed again! That guy sucks!
• Jin was the last person I expected to be trapped in the walk-in. It makes sense, but I wasn’t expecting it.
• It was great to see Ben so afraid of Sayid. Has Sayid’s heart been infected now?
• How much can change by setting off that damn nuke?? Which leads me to…

The case against Jacob

Add Sayid to the list of people who I believe would rather live in Timeline X. Hell he just let Smokey butcher all The Others in the temple for the promise of Nadia being alive again. If you’ve lost count at home that’s Jack, Locke, Hurley, Claire, Dogen, everyone on the plane and most of The Others. Kate has it worse and Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Desmond, Miles, Rose and White Bernard are to be determined. There is a strong case to be made that Jacob needlessly toys with these people’s lives for no reason what-so-ever. Why did he let Nadia get hit by that car? Why did he save Dogen’s son but only if Dogen promised to come to the island? Jacob is not making it easy to defend him. My friend Cav keeps saying that Jacob is like the devil because he is constantly telling you have a choice (free will) all the while he is manipulating you.

The case against Smokey

All that being said, I should warn you that I am a card carrying member of Team Jacob. It bothers me that Smokey is using Claire by lying to her about Aaron’s location. I’m surprised Smokey didn’t kill Jin & Kate to keep the truth from Claire. And while Jacob has killed and made things worse via his Jacob-whammy skills (manipulation), there is something to be said about how Smokey went in and slaughtered everyone at the temple and in Jacob’s house. Let’s also not forget he enjoyed picking off our Losties during Season 1. He has displayed a pessimism for people since the Black Rock arrived and he killed Mr. Eko! I think that’s a formula for baddie, however, It’s a shame he’s got all the cool people on his side (Sayid, Sawyer I’m looking at you!)

Finally I’ll leave you with my thoughts on next week’s episode, please stop reading if you don’t watch the previews for the following week! Clearly next week is going to be a Ben-centric episode (check) and I will go on record that I think he will die. The alarm clock has gone off and someone major needs to die…

Candidates and Richard Alpert

As many of you know, Finally Lost participates in a weekly Q/A where many of the top bloggers from DarkUFO to the The Four Toed Foot all answer 2 questions per week. In addition to posting my answers on this site, I will post and give props to my favorite non-Finally Lost answer. You of course can see all the answers to the weekly questions at Stream of Consciousness.

The questions were:

1. Do you think any of the candidates (Hurley, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, Jack, Locke) will become the next ‘Jacob’?
   
2. Who/what is Richard?

Finally Lost:

1) I think Jack is destined to become the next Jacob. The show has clearly been all about Jack from the start. He was the original leader, he has had the most “centric episodes” and all the connections seem to go through Jack. If you’ve read my blog then you’ve witnessed my painful Jack-Journey and you understand how difficult it is for me to anoint Jack as the next Jacob. During the course of 5 seasons, Jack has done a Sawyer/Jin-like turnaround only in the wrong direction! He went from, “Cool it’s Charlie from Party of Five” to “Why isn’t he leading??” to “Why doesn’t he listen to anyone??” to finally, “Damn he cries too much and I’ll never forgive him for killing Juliet!”. Despite his shortcomings this show has always been about Jack and I think convincing everyone to allow him to set off the nuke solidified him as Jacob’s number 1 stunna.

2) Clearly Richard Alpert is the former top model for the island’s Maybelline Eyeliner Contest. Jacob chose Richard but the Man In Black thought Dogen was the better choice. In the end Jacob’s man edged out Dogen in the voting by a score of 16-15 and a bitter MIB has been trying to kill Jacob ever since. QED. This is Lost so anything is possible, however, I think the right answer is that Richard was a prisoner on the Black Rock while Dogen its captain. For whatever reason Jacob decided Ricardus would be his dotted-line advisor (*cough* admin) leaving Jacob enough free time to spend the next two centuries looking for a successor. A friend of mine once noted that he’d love to see an Island Org Chart and I think it would be a great exercise to put one together.

Paul Burrows @ Room 23:

1) Well when Flocke said “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” it made me start thinking that just maybe MIB taking the form of Locke is having a detrimental effect. What if Locke’s personality is going to slowly take control of MIB and there will be an eventual war of emerging personalities with the original Locke eventually being reborn in the Flocke body and vanquishing MIB. Then eiher Locke or Jack will take Jacob’s role and the other will take Richards role.

2) Well we know that Richard has been a recruiter for the Others/Jacob. He met with little Ben on a few occasions and even saved his life in the Temple Pool. He recruited Juliet and he made a number of attempts to recruit Locke.

Lostpedia says on Richards page: “In the Season 3 DVD commentary for “The Man from Tallahasse”, Richard Alpert is described as someone who is not interested in leading the Others but is very influential in finding and selecting a leader. He is described as being similar to a Panchen Lama choosing the next Dalai. He and Ben keep each other in “check” by having the power to pick/veto each other’s replacement on the Island. Ben’s role would be to pick the next Panchen, should the need arise. This keeps the two in a sort of balanced power relationship. They are allies, yet they have some measure of control over the other should one get out of hand.”

I would assume that he had the same relationship with Widmore and Eloise and if Locke had not flashed he would have had the same relationship with him.As for Richards’s origins I would assume that the Black ship that Jacob and MIB saw was the Black Rock and that Richard was probably the captain of the ship. He probably was given the gift of immortality after agreeing to be Jacobs’s advisor and go between to the current leader of Jacobs people (The Others).

—————————————–

Well that’s all I got until tonight’s episode, I have a feeling it’s going to be a great one. Before I go I’d like to share with you the top key words people are googling to find this blog. It’s hilarious and while I’m not sure what it says about my blog, clearly I am the subject matter expert on all things mr. echo, red sox and all things ben…

• finally lost
• mr echo died in season 3?
• no one to cry to
• mr echo lost
• how the hell is ben linus a teacher
• i hate sayid
• why didn’t ben linus get surgery on the
• lost mr. echo
• ben avicolli
• lost island is a spaceship
• lefleur folder richard alpert
• why did echo die in lost
• that’s why the red sox never win the world series
• lost how can ben linus become a teacher
• lost+red sox theories
• she wasn’t really at ben’s funeral
• why did ben get stuck in the net lost
• “ben bernard” toys
• lost how can benjamin linus be a teacher

Aww he’s got his daddy’s cries!

Full disclosure, my TV Forecast widget lists when all my shows are going to be new and what the title of the show will be. So last week I kept asking myself, Lighthouse?? There’s not a lighthouse on the island… it must be an off-island reference. WRONG. Not only is there a Lighthouse on the island but it’s less than a days walk from the temple. “Dude, I guess we never really looked for it.” Oh yea Hurley?? Ok professor, do you also care to explain how everyone is bouncing from one side of the island  to the other in less than 15-show-minutes when those same journeys took 4 episodes in season 1! I digress. There is a lighthouse on the island where the degrees correspond to candidates and it allows Jacob to play peeping Tom on just about anyone. Any thoughts on why it showed Jack’s house from when he was 8? I thought for sure it was going time show Timeline X…

Now onto Daddy Jack. Not Christian (I’m going to have to come up with a new nickname for him now) but Crying Jack is a dad! Clearly setting off a nuke in 1977 can setoff a chain of events where Jack knocks up some yet-to-be-named chippie and causes his appendix to burst at age 7 or 8. Interestingly enough Jack would have been about 7 or 8 around 1977…maybe the explosion ruptured his appendix!?!? Despite his initial shortcomings as a father, I was really rooting for Jack to repair his relationship with his son. Rooting for Jack isn’t something I’ve done since season 3 and it’s something I thought I could never do after he caused Juliet’s death. Amazing how the writers own my emotions….

As interesting as the differences are between Timeline Prime and Timeline X, I think the most interesting fact is that the majority of the Losties are happier in Timeline X. Hurley is clearly  happier, Locke has Helen and has accepted his benched fate (also being alive is better than being dead), Jack has a son and despite crying just as much, seems to be a little better off, Prego (Claire) is going to keep her baby and I bet if you took a poll of most folks on Oceanic Flight 815 they would prefer to life over island death. I’m not going to judge anyone who hasn’t had a centric episode but I will concede Kate is worse off and I’m sad that Rose will likely die.

Speaking of the centric episodes, have most people picked up on the fact that we are following the same character centric-order as the season 1? I completely forgot that Jack got a second centric episode so early on and thought that this week would be all about Sun. Woops. I’ve posted the season 1 order and my guesses for the season 6 order. I have listed candidate replaces for those centric episodes that seem really unlikely to occur (Charlie, Boone, I’m looking at you).

Episode	Season 1	Season 6
Pilot (1/2)	Jack/Charlie	Various
3	Kate	Kate
4	Locke	Locke
5	Jack	Jack
6	Sun	?Sun?
7	Charlie	?Ben?
8	Sawyer	?Sawyer?
9	Sayid	?Sayid?
10	Claire	?Claire?
11	Jack	?Jack?
12	Kate	?Kate?
13	Boone	?Richard!?
14	Michael & WAAAALT	?Jacob?
15	Charlie	?Smokey?
16/17	Sawyer/Jin	?Various?

And a few quick hits:

• My Lost viewing buddy, Franny, described me as positively “giddy” when Jack and his son were tearing up at the same time. If only Christian was there to complete the trifecta, although he doesn’t really strike me as a crier.
• I believe the most popular theory is that Juliet is Jack’s baby’s father??
• Is it just me or does Jacob seem way more smug now that he’s dead? I’m sure the writers don’t want to give away who’s bad and who’s good but I liked Jacob more last season.
• Both Jacob & Smokey lied and manipulated people this week. Jacob lied to Hurley about the lighthouse and Smokey’s been lying to Prego about Aaron living with The Others. Smokey’s lie is definitely bigger, which makes me still think he’s the baddie, HOWEVER, given all that has changed in Timeline X, it’s clear that Jacob has been pulling Michael Corleone-like strings. If I’m right about Timeline X being the happier place for our Losties, then maybe Jacob is the baddie after all…
• I wonder how different Sawyer’s life will be if he never wrote that letter to Sawyer
• Since Dogen was at David’s piano tryout I guess I was wrong about him being captain of The Black Rock. Come on, dude looks like a captain of a ship called The Black Rock!
• I guess Prego doesn’t know that Christian & “her friend” are the same person? P.S. Did she shop at Russo-R-Us for her trap and camp gear?

Next up on Finally Lost, I’ll post my answers to this week’s Stream of Consciousness Q/A (Who will be the next Jacob and Who/what is Richard Alpert) along with my favorite answer from another blogger. I’d also like to finish my island org chart and explore the Timeline X changes a bit more…

p.s. While I try to limit the number of theory blogs I read in order to keep this blog as theory-independent as possible, I am undoubtably influenced by the Wednesday morning quarterbacking I do with some of my Lost friends. This is my once and future shout out to Franny, Brian and anyone else who may have influenced my thoughts which resulted in me posting it as a theory or thought. The humor, however, is all mine 😛

Finally Lost Finally Back

As some of you who know me in the real world know, I just went through a rough stretch of starting a new business while working my regular 40 hour a week job. Unfortunately this left me very little time to blog about our favorite islanders, however, rest assured Finally Lost will be back and will help you question all your answers from now until the end of the season.

Now I wasn’t completely unproductive during my hiatus, Finally Lost was recently chosen by Chris Kelly of Stream Of Consciousness as one of the top 23 Lost sites on the Blogosphere and was asked to participate in a weekly Q/A session. Every week Chris sends us 2 questions and posts our answers on his site. Please check out Stream Of Consciousness when you get a chance and see how Finally Lost is dong in comparison to the best bloggers out there. Chris has a lot of great stuff on his site including a Cafe-Press T-Shirt Contest to the person who writes the best Lost ending.

As to not leave you completely hanging, I am posting my answers to the first 2 weeks questions which I think will start some good debate. Already I’m being told the writers have hinted the alternate theory isn’t true but I plan on blogging soon to flesh out my theory.

WEEK 1

What is going on with the LAX scenes? Do you believe we are experiencing an alternate timeline, or is it something else entirely?
I know a common theory out there is that the X in LA X means we have a parallel universe on our hands (that’s multi-verse for all the fellow comic geeks out there). Since the “What happened happened” tenant of the show has been evicted from the show like it Walt going through puberty, I find myself clinging to another faithful tenant: Course Correction! Yes I believe LA SPACE X means we are in an alternate timeline and yes I believe we will course correct, the interesting question, however, is which timeline will win? Wouldn’t it be wild if the Losties got to choose which timeline became reality? Does Sawyer choose to be the pre-island conman with a hard-one for Kate or a post-island rebuilt man with a Juliet sized broken heart?? Time will tell, literally…

Smokey / NotLocke / ManInBlack says he wants to “go home”.  Where/what is “home”?
I’ve been convinced for sometime now that Jacob & Smokey are aliens/gods (it’s all the same to us agnostics) who have been exiled to earth on a broken down space ship, aka the island. The fact that the island has a wheel that can move it through time and space has always made me think spaceship. If Jacob and Smokey really are exiled then I think Jacob was totally the kid that convinced Smokey that one joint won’t kill ya, or whatever alien crime is punishable by an Earth exile these days, which is why Smokey wants to kill Jacob so badly. It is interesting that Jacob has no problem leaving the island but Smokey is land locked. In the end, I think E.T. want to go home and be reunited with Mrs. Smokey…

WEEK 2

Games have been mentioned continually thoughout the series – from Locke’s backgammon allegories, to Jacob’s talk of a “loophole”. This week, Sawyer described Sayid’s ressurection as him earning “another go around“. Do you believe the Lost characters are taking part in some kind of game/test, and if so, how can they possibly win/pass this scenario?
Absolutely! Locke and pre-puberty Walt set the tone for the entire series during their backgammon scenes. At first we thought the Losties were the pawns of The Others with Ben pulling all the strings, but as the wise Richard Alpert says, “Everyone has a boss”, and clearly Jacob and Smokey are the Tony Danza on this island. The writers keep telling us not to prejudge which of our mysterious “friends” are good/evil but I’d throw my hat in the ring with Jacob. Besides the fact that he pals around with my boy Hurley, Jacob has done a much better PR job simple by not randomly turning into black smoke and killing Losties (will we ever learn why Smokey did that??) Now just because we know who the players are doesn’t mean we understand the game, this IS Lost after all. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the series Jacob pulled out a dollar bill and handed it to Smokey “Trading Places” style and said, see I told you Kate would go for Sawyer!!!

On a lighter note, Kate just can’t stop following Sawyer around!! I know it is a question that a large part of the fandom love to ask (and an equally large number loathe to hear), so let’s get it out of the way – who will Kate finally “end up” with?
On the “Official Lost Video Podcast”, Evangeline Lilly (Kate) said she thought that Aaron is really the man in her life and her Jawyer relationship was almost moot. If you look at Aaron being the reason Kate’s returned to the island and Aaron being the crutch she leaned on to mend her Sawyer-induced broken heart, then I think it’s clear she’s right. I don’t any of us think it’s a coincidence in the flash-sideways that Kate ended up in that cab with Claire and helped her out with an Aaron problem. Aaron is the reason Kate stopped running and Aaron is the reason Kate doesn’t have room in her heart for Jack or Sawyer. In an Aaron-less world I think Kate would have picked Sawyer, like any sane woman that’s seen him without a shirt. Unfortunately for Kate, in timeline Prime (where the island is still above the ocean) Sawyer’s known 3 years of a life with a woman who didn’t constantly lie and who wasn’t bouncing between men like a employee at the Vegas Bunny Ranch. That unfortunately leaves her with a consolation prize of Jack “the crying man” and we all saw how those off-island romances work out…