This episode was so much different this time even though I just recently watched it during Season 6. While I mostly still agree with what I stated in that recap, I can really elaborate now that the series is over. Instead of watching the episode and taking it as a piece of the puzzle, I was able to see it this time as a mirror into the finale episode. There are just a few things I want to take up in this recap that are very important to me.
This was a Jack episode. It revealed a lot about him and really mirror imaged him in season 6. In his flashback we see him do two things. The first half of that flashback we see him trying to fix the wrong thing again (on and off island). Then his father gives him the "you don't have what it takes" speech. This speech impacts his island experience. He is looked to as a leader, but is very reluctant to take it. He is broken because of this speech. Only until Hurley says "he has what it takes" in Lighthouse does he start fix himself and see that he can actually do what he is meant to do.
The second half of the flashback he is starting to clean up the mess he made with his father and then later deal with his death. This mirrors Jack's entire flash sideways in my opinion. Maybe Jack was troubled by the fact that he never clean up the mess and that he never really got to bury his father properly. Maybe this is why his sideways was so focused on his father's death and resolving the daddy issues with David. I have always thought that the sideways world was not only a place made to find each other, but it is also a place for them to feel nice and cozy before they finally transition. More on that later...
On island Jack is working through his "not having what it takes" by running around the jungle chasing his dead father. And I have a pretty crazy idea about Christian. Before I say this crazy idea I have, I need to say that this: since watching this episode, I have decided that I feel that the MIB/Smoke Monster never was a person. It never was Jacob's brother, but Jacob created it. It is what it is...a monster. This monster has the ability to scan memories. It can impersonate dead people. It wants to destroy the island. That is all we know about it. Jacob's brother was not given a name because it isn't the Monster. Maybe Damon and Carlton did this as a giant clue into that.
Now, my crazy theory about Christian/Smoke Monster. Dead parents. Many of the characters have dead parents. I think the Monster uses the impersonations of dead parents to manipulate people on the island to try to get them to do what he wants them to do. We have seen dead parents come about since Across the Sea. I also believe that the Monster was Richard's Isabella. It was also Ben's mother. And it is also Jack's father in this episode. I have an idea about what the Monster might be doing here and I don't believe the Monster when it says it was helping Jack find water in The Last Recruit. I think the Monster is setting Jack up to lead and fail. Making his remember his father, get inspired by Locke to lead and then fail. The Monster may know that Jack is on the path to becoming the next protector and doesn't want that. Maybe the Monster wants him to fail as a leader and never do it again.
What was Locke's deal? He knew where to go to find Jack and what to say to Jack to make him find the water and find a little bit of strength to lead the other survivors. I think that Locke is being influenced by the Monster and being used to manipulate Jack into leadership. Locke is feeling special and all knowing. I don't know if he has actually met with the Monster while his is impersonating someone (as Jacob's brother) or if he has influence on Locke's mental state. But Locke seems like he knows something here. And as far as Locke's "seeing into the eye of the island", I think that it is something the Monster showed him to manipulate him. I don't think that he saw the heart of the island.
The final thing I need to talk about is Charlie's tattoo. When he is talking to Claire we get a good look at what it says: "Living is easy with eyes closed" This is a lyric to The Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever. The lyrics to this song, to me, explain the sideways world. A big fat giant clue into how the story would end that we couldn't ever really see until now. No matter how many Dharma stations were found or how many new Others we met, this story was always going to be about these characters and their journey into death. I also find it very interesting that Charlie has this tattoo and he is the first one to open his eyes up in sideways land.
As I said a little earlier, I always thought that the sideways world was a nice, cozy place for our Losties to wait and find each other. Even though they all seem to be in a similar situation as they were pre-815, all of them seem pretty comfortable. It is how they would want everything to be, in a perfect world, while they wait for their friends. "Living is easy with eyes closed." To me, this is such a beautiful idea.
This episode was the key to the end. I always knew it was epic, but the reflections into the finale were just stunning. Kate is taking care of Claire in both episodes, Jack touches the coffin almost exactly the way he does in the finale, and the way that Kate said "I'm sorry" to Jack in this episode was the exact same way she says it in the finale. (That one really gave me goosebumps.) I really think they wrote these episodes at the same time. It was really cool to go back and see this episode now that it is all over.
