“Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death” John Newton
Super-Duper Brief Recap
Season 5 Episode 16 “Follow the Leader”- Ellie kills her future son and then invites Jack and Kate back to her tent for tea explanations.
Jack wants to play with Jughead; an activity that Kate wants no part of. They fight.
John, Richard and Ben re-unite. They make an odd trio.
Sawyer protects Kate and is brutally beaten by Radzinsky.
Phil proves that he really is the son of a motherless goat, when he hits Juliet.
It’s disgusting.
Miles gets closure on his Daddy issues.
Team Jack and Team Ellie merge to create Team Destiny, forcing Kate to strike out on her own and form Team Free-Will.
The Island Really IS in a Time Loop
Author’s Note: I’m in Hawaii. I will be here for a long time to come. I was unreasonably stoked to watch “Follow the Leader” and next week’s “The Incident,” in the land where the show is shot (okay, I’m on Maui, but the idea is there…)
I waited all day, forcing myself to avoid the Internet during the interminable six hours between the East coast airing and the Hawaiian airing…
Finally, at 8:56pm, I turn on the television, flip to ABC and see… Juliet and Sawyer.
On a submarine. And she is asking him ‘what they will do when they get to Ann Arbor.’
And my heart breaks. Apparently, one must never take for granted that LOST airs at 9pm everywhere on Earth. It does not.
My record totally skipped and my only consolation is that at least this nonsense didn’t happen during the finale.
As an aside, my Sirius Satellite Radio does not work here due to ‘poor signal quality,’ so I am currently seeking volunteers to help triangulate a signal and get that beast transmitting. Just saying….
Alas, here is my belated take on “Follow the Leader…”
“Take Me to Your Leader…Whoever the Hell He or She May Be…”
Post-tragic-Daniel-death, Kate and Jack hide like ‘rats’ in the Jungle and argue.
Jack wants to charge the camp and save Daniel; Kate thinks this is a really bad plan.
Jack preaches the merits of blank slate.
Otherwise known as ‘Tabula Rasa.’
Kate preaches the virtue of the experience.
Otherwise known as ‘Kate-is-sad-that-Jack-wishes-they’d-never-met.’
Jack doesn’t give a hoot.
The argument is unceremoniously ended when Widmore clocks Jack in the head with his gun resulting in the capture of K&J.
Ellie and Charles have a lover’s quarrel, which Richard wisely attributes to the fact that love is ‘complicated.’
Thank God we have Richard on board as the resident Island consigliore, because that ‘love is complicated’ stuff was a total gem and not at all obvious.
Anyway, Ellie wins the argument and Jack and Kate are untied.
They retire to Ellie’s tent for bourbon and cigars and re-join their Jungle disagreement, already in progress.
“And the Beat Goes On…” Sonny and Cher
Radzinsky beats Sawyer in vain attempt to acquire intel re: Kate’s whereabouts.
Sawyer ain’t playin’; which seems more than a mite vexing to Juliet.
Horace proves to be a super shitty leader and also a massive wuss, when he bitches out in the face of Radzinsky and Phil’s collective fists of fury.
Once an 815-er…
Jack done taught Hurley well.
Miles and Jin send Hurls to the Barracks to collect rations to sustain them at the beach.
Hurley believes that they are about to embark on ‘Operation Save Suliet,’ and is quick to remind his cohorts that Sawyer would never leave them behind.
This turns out to be a false statement.
Still, Hurley was clearly trained in the ‘No man left behind,’ ‘live together, die alone’ school of Island survival, and he cannot help but return to his roots when the going gets tough.
Dr. Chang: So you fought in the Korean War? Hurley: There’s no such thing.
Best. Hurley. Dialogue.
Maybe ever…
The interrogation scene, between Dr. Chang (trying to get Hurls to admit that they are from the future) and Hurley (denying this balderdash,) was brilliant.
It was classic, loveable Hurls.
After admitting that they are indeed from the future (which finally seems to be the ‘get out of jail free’ card it was always meant to be,) Miles and Pierre share a completely unremarkable moment of ‘Oh, so yeah… we are related…’
In their defense, I guess the imminent cataclysmic event on the cusp of occurrence, could be regarded as something of a buzz-kill.
Miles vouches for Danny’s pristine ‘time-related-event’ accuracy record, and P.F. Chang orders the evacuation of the Island.
Right on schedule.
Speaking of ‘Right on Schedule…’
Three years after his hasty departure, John waltzes back to the Others camp toting a massive boar and a brand new attitude.
Richard acknowledges the latter and John credits the change to ‘having a purpose.’
Ben appears not to be so lucky.
He is battered, bruised, and (thanks to Smokey) forced to follow Locke around like, well…like Locke is the leader.
Witty repartee between John and Ben ensues but ends quickly due to time constraints.
John Locke is on a mission. And Ben and Richard live but to serve him.
Praise ye fearless leader…
The incongruous trio head toward the Beech craft so that John can walk Richard through saving him, which he does… exactly as he should. Or did. Or will. Or always has.
“In this journey, you’re the journal, I’m the journalist. Am I eternal or an eternalist?” Eric B & Rakim
This episode focuses on leaders and such, and in following that theme, I must state my open concern for the current condition of the D.I. hierarchy.
First, Radzinsky wrests control from Horace as he and his bitch-boy Phil, commence training for a future in the UFC all over Sawyer and Juliet’s faces.
Then Chang, whom I’d assumed was an upper-echelon Dharma-guy, also allows his authority to be wholly mitigated by the Swan-architect-turned-terrorist, Radzinsky.
This entire thing is way disturbing and though the D.I. is in an understandable state of turmoil, why is Radzinsky suddenly the go-to guy?
I blame this egregious leadership failure on the Republicans.
I’m not sure why precisely, but blaming the GOP seems super-effective these days; thus I shall take the cue from my leaders and follow suit…
“Then away he’ll schlep on his elephant Shep while Fella and Ursula stay in step” George of the Jungle
Kate’s totally over the merger of Team Jack with Team Ellie.
She decides she’d rather leave on her own, than swim into bomb-laden tunnels with ‘Team Destiny.’
Sadly, this is simply not in the cards, as Ellie feels she’s already said too much in front of her new ‘friends.’ Just as some heathen named Erik, cocks his rifle in Kate’s direction, two shots ring out and Erik keels over. Sayid, doing his best George of the Jungle impression, emerges from the foliage.
Ahhhhhhhh! Watch out for that tree!
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
Kate remains steadfast in her belief that while arson is sometimes excusable, detonating bombs and shooting children is never okay.
Jack pleads ‘innocent by reason of destiny.’
Kate equates him with that other crazy F.O.D. (Friend of Destiny), John Locke.
She vows to stop him and runs off to gather the rest of ‘their people.’
She hopes they’ll have her back…
Speaking of Having Someone’s Back…
Sawyer has Juliet’s. And he tells her so.
Juliet loves Sawyer. She tells him so.
He loves her back… which he openly states.
There is so much communication happening here that I almost forgot that I was watching LOST.
Until Kate falls down the rabbit hole steps through the submarine hatch.
Then I remembered…
And so did Sawyer.
And so did Juliet.
Ben Sawyer Always Has a Plan…
In this case, the plan is to run far, far away from Ann Arbor and use his future-knowledge to pick stocks and bet big on sporting events.
That sounds just like what Widmore did to make his fortune…
Still, something tells me Suliet may never make it Ann Arbor, let alone their local O.T.B. facility.
“You’ll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever a Wiz! there was…”
John gathers his people and makes a Jack-style speech about not blindly believing in that which we cannot see (read: Jacob).
He tells them that he intends to unmask the wizard (read: Jacob).
He also intends to kill the wizard (read: Jacob), but he (wisely) doesn’t mention that fact to his people…
And on his ‘people…’
I couldn’t help but notice that Richard seemed just a smidge condescending towards John and his ‘new leader-whims,’ throughout this episode.
He seemed to be placating John the Baptist.
It’s almost as though Richard is allowing John to believe he is the actual leader while in reality, he is merely paving the way for Jack , the true prodigal son.
Just thinking aloud…
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Theodore Roosevelt
Technorati Tags: LOST With Lyndsey
Go to Source
