A Boone-centric episode this week. And minus the incest, I really enjoyed the episode. It laid a lot of clues down and gave us some more bonding with the characters. Locke is extra creepy this episode, but not creepier than the sibling sex.
The more I watch these episodes, the more I see Hurley doing leader/taking care of people type role. This episode he asks Boone about the boar hunting. One may think that Hurley is asking because he is the fat hungry guy, but that isn't really how he asks. He asks almost authoritative, like he wants food for the people. He has a lot of these leading moments. And a lot of moments where Jack depends on him. They try to show him as the light hearted character, but he is really quite serious.
This is the most important time of these people's lives so it is only natural that they begin to form the bonds that they need in the sideways. There were a lot of bonds made here. Kate finds out about Sun being able to speak English. Jin gives Hurley a fish. And there is also a whole lot of Boone and Locke bonding even though they aren't together on screen. And, I found it kind of funny that "Previously on Lost" had pretty much all Boone and Locke togetherness scenes. Not a lot of Shannon and Boone, which is what you would think this episode was about, right?
Poor Boone. He gets conned on and off island. But to me it wasn't entirely about Boone and Shannon and their incest love. It was about MIB using Locke to manipulate Boone. I have a theory on why. I don't think it had to do with helping Boone with his sister fetish. And I don't think it had much to do with "don't tell anyone about the hatch" either. I think it had to do with Boone getting to the point of letting Shannon go so that he could die. Boone was a candidate(#226) and MIB doesn't like the candidates to live. I think a lot of the stuff MIB does has to do with Locke needing to get into the minds of the candidates, find their weakness aka what they need to let go of, and exploit it to the point of their death. He successfully does this with Boone.
Letting go is hard. I think it is one of the hardest things a person can do. Most of these survivors have issues stemming from things they need to let go of. Boone has his. He wants something he shouldn't want. He has probably thought about her and that moment for a long time, even though he shouldn't. And once he gets to be with her, he hits rock bottom. In order for Locke's paste to work Boone has to have this moment with Shannon. Getting the answer is the only way you can experience relief. It is creepy that they did this, but at the same time I think he needed it so that he could let her go. He needed this even more so than the vision. I think he may be the first one we see let something go. And he is also the first one of them we see that dies. Locke can say that this is "vital to your survival on the island" but I think that letting go is the way you die on the island. And MIB is happy when the candidates die.
To me, this episode laid down the biggest theme to Lost ever. Letting go. And when I watched it before Lost ended, I never really saw how big that theme was so early on. There was a ton of other little things you could theorize about but that letting go stuff really stood out the most to me.
