Many spoilers ahead. If you have not watched all of LOST include last night’s episode, “Dr. Linus,†you should move along. There’s nothing to see here.
Mr. Doc Jensen is now of the belief that the divergent moment that separates Sideways Flashes from Flashbacks was when John Locke’s mother Emily was struck by a car, causing her to go into labor prematurely. This, of course, stands in opposition to the commonly held belief that the detonation of Jughead is what spurred the alternate reality (or whatever you want to call it) we are currently experiencing. It’s a nice little idea, but he’s got it all wrong. I’m sure at some point (soon, hopefully) we will learn what exactly sank the island. But it won’t matter, because I still believe the flashbacks never happened. My friend Shane’s “Groundhog Day” analogy makes it easier to digest than anything I’ve written in the past few weeks (Jacob + MIB = Bill Murray trying to manifest their own ideal day). It’s not the hardest thing in the world for the show’s producers to explain how none of it could be true. For instance, what if they show us Jacob or MIB in the Sideways flashes touching the castaways? Wouldn’t that go beyond implying that this is just another iteration in a long line of directional-flashes in which an eons-old struggle to make their own desired universe is portrayed? Wouldn’t it put the sideways and backwards flashes on equal footing in that they were both realities dictated by the actions of the island entities? I think so…
By the way, if you want to construct the greatest mind-fuck ever, think about this. What if the last thing we see on LOST is another plane breaking apart over the island and, uh, the castaways are all on it again? You know, after MIB/Locke and Jack reiterate the MIB/Jacob beach conversation verbatim (probably while Ben Linus is at the temple performing Richard or Dogen’s old duties). Instead of seeing the Black Rock in the distance, we see a plane approaching overhead. An Oceanic plane. And in terrible CGI fashion (like the submarine cutaways and the quick jaunt around the sunken island) we zoom in on it. And then we go through the windshield and see Lapidus at the helm, and proceed to zip by Boone and Shannon in First Class, right on through to the back of the plane. We see all the castaways. Wouldn’t that too solidify this notion that everything we’ve seen and learned about these characters is but one iteration in an endless cycle which has played out numerous times before? That would kill the shit out of flashbacks, too.
But, I digress, I guess now I’ll write about something else for a change.
Including Vozzek69, I’ve now read THREE instances citing William Atherton (Principal Reynolds) as being an educator in Real Genius who played a similar role to his character on LOST last night. I’m kind of enraged that neither Doc Jensen nor Vozzek took the time to mention the fact that fucking Jon Gries (aka Roger Linus) is also in Real Genius! What a cool piece of LOST trivia that is! Real Genius was the original Smokin’ Aces! Likewise, both Vozzek and Jensen namedrop Michael, Locke and Jack as three other characters who have tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide after being touched by Jacob. Michael is a natural guess, since he was shown multiple times trying to off himself without proof he was touched by Jacob. Neither writer referenced Hurley’s potential leap off a cliff in the season two episode “Dave” as an instance in which “Don’t Do Suicide” came into play. At the end of that episode, Libby appears just in time to keep Hurley from jumping to his death. Is this evidence that maybe Hurley was touched by Jacob earlier in his life, and he too is invincible (against his own hand)? I think I’ve written before that after “Lighthouse” it wouldn’t surprise me if we learn Jacob had visited and touched the castaways at multiple crucial moments in their lives. Why else would he be watching them all their lives?
Two more points. First, we got to see Widmore returning to the island. He told John Locke “A war is coming,” and if Locke is not back on the island, “the wrong side is going to win.” I guess we are to assume that Widmore’s periscope is searching for Locke along the shores of the island. Widmore’s appearance raises a ton of questions. First, does he know that Locke is not Locke? If not, will he blindly (and mistakenly) side with the Man In Black? Perhaps more importantly, was Widmore the person Jacob hinted was coming to the island? Whatever the answers are, they shed a newly cryptic light on that conversation at the hospital in Tunisia. My guess is Widmore will side with Locke, because…well…at some point in the near future we have to see Ben kill Widmore, right? Oh man, that’s going to be awesome. Maybe during the same episode Kate kills Claire. Two awesome redemption stories with happy endings? That doesn’t seem very LOST-like.
Lastly, is there a doubt in anyone’s mind now that Jack will be the last candidate standing, and that he will inevitably take over Jacob’s role as island caretaker? When I spoke with smartypants professor and LOST enthusiast Paul Levinson back in October, we discussed our theories about the show’s inevitable conclusion. He suggested that we would see three courses of action for the main characters on the show. Some would die, some would leave the island of their own will, and some would stay. At this point, I don’t think anyone is leaving the island alive (sorry Aaron, sorry little Korean baby whose name I forget). I think there are only two ways off this show: death, and eternity on the island. The way the sides are drawn now, I can realistically see only three people surviving the war. Jack, Hurley and Ben. In fact, it would not surprise me if every other character was killed off in the war. I don’t count Locke/MIB as a potential survivor because he’s already dead. Come to think of it, I could see Ben and Hurley dying, too. Imagine Hurley getting shot — by Sawyer — on the beach during the epic battle. We see him touch his wound, then he studies his bloody hand and says, “Dude” before dropping to the sand like a huge bag of cement. Best TV show death ever? I think so.
Jack and MIB will be the last entities standing. Just like they always have been. You know, like Adam and Eve or something. Only in reality it’s Adam and…Steve? Ha! Anyway, feel free to re-read paragraph two to hear my current theory for how it all will end.
Okay, that’s all for now. See you next week!
