In comparison with the other episodes this season, I didn’t feel this episode was as strong in its delivery as those shown previously, but that’s not say that it didn’t hold valuable information and insight into what the finale may bring. I think that throughout this show, up to and including this episode, Lost has been consistent in character portrayal, storyline continuation, and giving us answers at the appropriate time (even though most of us have wanted them sooner).
In Follow The Leader, we are given a two-part story: one told from the perspective of what is going on around Richard in 1977, and one told from the perspective of what is happening around him in 2007. Both stories are showing similar themes of overthrown leadership and either preventing or causing the death of someone or something on the island. In 1977, Sawyer, Juliet, Kate, Miles, Hurley, Jack, Sayid, and Jin are uncertain of their fate as they all work collectively to avoid the potential dangers of the site that the future Swan hatch will exist on. In 2007, John and Ben have found Richard and the Others. John explains that he has a purpose for being there, and after leading Richard to his past-self by the Beechcraft that has a bullet-wound in his leg, John reveals that his next agenda is to lead the beach-dwelling Others on a trek to meet Jacob. John also divulges his agenda of killing Jacob.
I also have to admit that there were some things that bothered me about this episode. Through all of the character developments we’ve witnessed and the overcoming of past issues, I was disappointed to see that Kate has her instinct of running away again. I realize we saw this first this season when it was discovered by an outsider that Aaron wasn’t her child, but, to me, I can see that as a normal response to that situation. In this episode, however, Kate decides that she does not want to be a part of the mission to the Jughead and winds up being a prisoner of the Dharma Initiative instead. One would almost have to question what the real decision was that she was trying to make: escaping the nuclear bomb or escaping the miserable Jack. But the really big problem I’m having with Kate since her arrival on the island is that there has been no mention of Claire. Her “purpose” in giving Aaron up and returning to the island was to bring Claire back to him and she seems to have forgotten that mission. I’ll even give her the excuse of landing in a time that she had no way of anticipating, but doesn’t she ever think to ask Richard in all of her dealings with him? I also am finding that I’m not as big of a Sayid fan as I used to be, although that could just be me getting used to his absence in the last few episodes. I just didn’t “get it” that he had been watching Jack and Kate enough to know that they were heading for danger, but he wasn’t observant enough to know that Kate had just taken that route days before with a dying Ben. Maybe in future episodes Sayid will have a chance to recount his time away from the group, similar to that of Michael in Season 2.
While observing the events of Follow The Leader, there were a few things that I found myself questioning. In all of Eloise’s bewilderment about killing her future son, she finds proof of this fact in seeing her own handwriting in Daniel’s journal from 2004. This journal is complete with calculations, equations, notes, drawings, and every life experience Daniel has had through his work in the field of science. It also contains maps to various locations on the island and a chart of timelines. The Ellie of 1977 tucks this filled journal away before swimming down to the tunnels. Does Ms. Hawking have this journal in 2007 when she advises that Jack and the rest should return to the island? And if this answer is yes, is this how she has known things about Desmond? The big reveal at the end of The Constant was a notation in that journal that reads, “If anything happens, Desmond will be my constant.” In putting all of this together, I have to wonder now if Daniel is the reason Desmond’s work on the island isn’t finished. Desmond may still be needed to be Daniel’s constant, regardless of the fact that we’ve witnessed Ellie shoot and kill him. We always have to remember that we are watching an island that heals, resurrects and one in which things don’t stayed buried for very long.
This episode also had some very intriguing mirror images. What I love most about the mirror images in Follow The Leader was the fact that some of them led to some thought-provoked investigating and the finding of a few pieces of mythology to shadow the image. Others mirrored past episodes and happenings simply by repeating a single line or gesture. The mirror images I found this week are:
Ellie tells Jack about meeting Daniel in 1954 and then how he disappeared mirrored how Danielle panicked about seeing Jin again despite the fact that she had seen him disappear some time prior to Robert’s death.
Jack first meets Ms. Hawking in 2007 as a white-haired, aged woman and then encounters her younger self in 1977 when he returns to the island. This is a mirror of how John Locke first meets Charles Widmore in 1954 while skipping through time and then again, off-island, in 2007 after he lands in Tunisia, where Charles is an older man.
Sayid believes that he has killed young Ben and changed the future for the Oceanic survivors. This mirrored Desmond thinking that he could stop Charlie’s death from happening. In both cases, neither was successful.
The Others make their trek to Jacob, led by John Locke, much in the same way the survivors of Flight 815 did to the radio tower, led by Jack Shepard.
Dr. Chang asks Hurley questions similar to the ones he was concerned the Dharma Initiative would ask him; namely, who the president was in 1977.
Kate and Juliet are handcuffed together again, similar to when they were kept together in “Left Behind”.
Ellie says “All right, let’s get started” in 1977 before heading to the Jughead, just as she says to Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond above The Lamp Post.
Within the episode, we are seeing a mirroring in the change of leadership between the two times and factions on the island. In 1977, Radzinsky takes charge in Horace’s role with the Dharma Initiatve (exchanging a good leader for a bad one) and in 2007, we see John taking charge in Ben’s old role with The Others (exchanging a bad leader for a good one).
Before entering the pool of water that camoflages the entry to the tunnel, Jack says to Sayid, “See you on the other side.” This line was also said by Anthony Cooper when he and John were being brought to surgery for the kidney transplant. Sayid was seen on the “other side” and John was not because of Cooper skipping out on him.
Widmore uses the term “rats” on two separate occassions:
WIDMORE: Crouched in the bushes… like rats. (Follow the Leader–about finding Jack and Kate)
WIDMORE: Yes, Benjamin, it is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night–like a rat–and have the audacity to pretend that you’re the victim? (The Shape of Things to Come)
John is the cause of his own death, since it was he who told Richard to tell the wounded Locke that he had to die. So, in essence, Locke DID commit suicide, even though he was murdered.
John brings the boar to Richard and the Others to gain acceptance just as Miles delivered a boar to Juliet, Sawyer, Daniel, John, and Charlotte; also John walks into the Others camp with a dead body (boar) on his back, much like he did when he had his fathers body on his back.
• Mannanán’s powerful role in the cycle of life and death is also expressed in his possession of magic swine whose flesh provides food for feasting by the gods, and then regenerates each day, like that of Odin’s boar Sæhrímnir in Scandinavian myth. (In Christian religion, the parallel would be loaves and fishes)
• The boar made his appearance in mythological circles when one was offered as a gift to Frey, god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth. This boar was a remarkable animal; he could run faster than a horse, through the air and over water. Darkness could not overtake him, for he was symbolical of the sun, his golden bristles typifying the sun’s rays.
With only a couple of hours left in this season, we are forced to look back upon how far we’ve come, how many answers we’ve been give, and how many questions remain. A year ago, we were left with the uncertainty of what happened to the island when Ben turned that wheel. Since returning for the 5th season of the show, we’ve learned that answer and so many others, but other questions have been raised. The sad bit will be when we know there is nothing left to answer and nothing to wait for after a long hiatus.
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