And with a fade to white, it was over. The screen was the same white as my knuckles, which were clenched in tight fists as I yelled, “NOOOOOOOOO” at my television screen. Remember that ending of The Sopranos? This one was more shocking to me. (And by the way, I’m in the love camp on that Sopranos ending.)
But back to Lost. Yesterday was crazy busy; monitoring the blog, posting updates constantly, doing radio interviews where I try to explain Lost to listeners who haven’t seen it (and can I just say that unlike back in season 2, I can no longer do that in the “25 words or less” that radio hosts love to throw around). And in the end, I didn’t get a chance to post something here. What was I going to write that was in any way coherent? Aside from my original blog post on the episode, I posted on Jacob and who I’m calling MaybEsau; the Jacob’s ladder imagery we’ve seen on the show and how it plays into things now; the foot statue; and a funny clip of Matthew Fox on Kimmel. Hey, you gotta have SOME light moments.
So rather than a long coherent post on one topic, I think I’m going to post a smattering of thoughts, mostly generated by my brilliant readers, who kept the comments boards buzzing on my site all day yesterday and long into the night. These are all the things I didn’t talk about in my original post. Here goes.
· Several fans posited that Juliet was actually pregnant when she fell down the shaft. Which, of course, makes that moment all the more devastating. She holds her tummy tenderly in a few cases, and when she’s with Rose and Bernard, they look at her with a little more tenderness than the others, not just because of the state they can see she’s in, but maybe they know. And while I’m talking about Juliet, the main article on the Yahoo page yesterday was, “Lost favorite dies in finale” or something like that. And as I clicked on the link, I thought, “Who? Who died?” Because, maybe I had a different feed than everyone else, but I never saw Juliet die. I mean, she’s probably bleeding internally something fierce right now, but if Jack is right, and by detonating the bomb none of this will have happened, then she’s as rosy and healthy as the rest of them. And there’s a chance she’s not even on the island; if it was the electromagnetic energy that forced the women to become infertile, then maybe she doesn’t have to come.
· This brings me to a question that’s only formed in my head since Wednesday night. How does Jack/Daniel’s theory work? (If it’s true… which I doubt it is.) Is it that they can erase everything that happens after that moment? And if so, did the release of the electromagnetic energy before Juliet detonated the bomb (if that’s what that white flash was, and not a time bloop) mean they were too late, and regardless of what they do, the Swan will be built to cover the energy and someone will be pushing that button anyway? Daniel was pretty determined to get there BEFORE the energy was released, so I presume that its release means they’re pretty much frakked anyway?
· I’ve always suggested that this show will come down to free will vs. destiny, not good over evil (since no one seems to be clearly all good or clearly all evil). One of my readers, SonshineMusic, suggested that maybe while so many fans are focused on whether Jacob is good or evil, we should instead be looking at whether he represents free will or destiny, and if the other one is the opposite. In the Bible, Jacob believed in free will, and changed his own future by deceiving his father and stealing his brother’s birthright. Esau, on the other hand, believed in destiny, that the birthright was destined to be his and Jacob no more earned it than he did by doing what he did. If the Man in Black is an Esau character, that could be the dichotomy.
· Is it possible that Jacob’s cabin was never actually Jacob’s cabin, but MaybEsau’s? If MaybEsau has been the one in there this whole time, that would be consistent with him methodically conning Locke and Ben over the past few years to lead them to the point where he could take over John’s body.
· Here’s one of my own thoughts: All season long, every time a person dies, Richard Alpert wants the body and is careful to bury people deep. Is that because he’s actually hiding them from MaybEsau, so that he can’t inhabit their body the way he did John Locke? That empty coffin we saw in season 1; is it possible Christian was taken by Richard, who was intending to bury the body so Esau couldn’t get his hands on it, and Esau somehow cut him off at the pass and got the body? (I could speculate better if I knew how the hell this whole body-snatching thing worked!)
· One of my readers pointed out the link between this episode and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the witch finds a loophole and stabs Aslan, but he comes back to life. If Jacob is a Christ figure like Aslan was in that book, that could be an indication that he will return.
· Another reader emailed me off the list to suggest Jacob was evil instead of good (an idea we’d been tossing around in the comments). He said if Jacob was evil, and by stabbing him evil was eradicated, that could be why the show faded to white rather than black. Great theory, although on Lost they tend to trick you, and the people in white tend to be bad.
· That brings me to Jacob meeting the Oceanic 5 and Locke. I mentioned this in my blog and have yet to read a satisfactory theory on it: Why does he touch Kate, Sawyer, Jack, and Locke before they get on Oceanic Flight 815, but he touches Sayid and Hurley after they’ve already been on the flight, returned, and are about to board Ajira Flight 316? If Kate, Sawyer, Jack, and Locke were all touched as a motivation to get them on the plane, what motivated Sayid and Hurley to do it, too? I’m wondering if the touch had nothing to do with actually getting them on the plane, and instead was some sort of protection for them once they’re on the island. Notice all of them are still standing (well, Sayid is just barely so…)
· And here is something I’ve been meaning to mention on my blog, and every time I rewatch the episode I notice it, make a point of mentioning it, and then don’t, so I’ll do it here. We’ve been discussing all season the idea of Smokey and when he first appeared. Some think he was an ancient force on the island, others point out that we never see him in 1977 or before, so maybe he was created post-Incident or post-Purge. When I saw the scene of Juliet being grabbed by the chain and dragged quickly backwards (not to mention hearing that same cranking sound we all know and dread) I couldn’t help but think of Smokey. This was exactly like when Locke was grabbed by Smokey – who loops himself around the victim’s legs or waist and drags them backwards quickly – or the scene where one of Keamy’s men is similarly dragged. And just like when Locke was grabbed in Exodus, Smokey tried yanking him into a hole, but he was saved before it could happen. Juliet is also dragged to a hole, but she’s not so lucky. Could Smokey have arisen out of the Incident? I don’t think it’s a coincidence these two moments look so similar.
· That statue. Earlier in the season I suggested it was Set. Male from the back, flat head. Then someone suggested maybe it was Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. Great idea, and it would be perfect considering the fertility issues, but my only concern there is that Tawaret was in the form of a hippo to represent the rounded tummy of pregnant women, and did not have muscular arms like this statue. But she does have a flat head like this one, and is usually represented holding an ankh. After this episode, where we saw the large snout, one of my readers, Benny, suggested Sobek, the crocodile god, who brought fertility also. It’s a male statue with a flat head, and might be the most accurate one yet. But then a reader of mine emailed me this morning to say the ABC site is confirming that statue is indeed Tawaret. Did the production team never actually look at a picture of her? I’m not sure I buy that one. I wonder if it’s possible the statue could be an amalgam of different gods: Tawaret, Sobek, Set, and Anubis, all blended into one.
· One of my readers wondered if the fact Sayid is wearing Horace’s uniform should be a word of warning: After all, Locke will later find the corpse in the pit wearing that uniform. Could it be Sayid’s? Another reader said no, because those were the bodies from the Purge, and if they died in the 90s and Sayid died in 1977, then his body would have been on the bottom. But it did lead me to wonder if there’s some significance to Sayid wearing Horace’s uniform. They could have come up into any house and they came up into that one. Coincidence?
There is SO much more being said and going on over on my blog, but I need to post this and get back to other things (wait… there are things OTHER than Lost?!) I hope to post again in the coming week, but thought this would provide y’all with some fun discussion points. After all, we have EIGHT MONTHS to discuss it! Oh, and someone brought to my attention that someone on this site is organizing a rewatch party. We’ve been organizing the same thing on my blog for the past week or so. Mine will be starting a little later (beginning of July and going through January), but keep watching my site for updates, and we’ll have lots to discuss!
Nikki Stafford is the author of the Finding Lost series of books, which offer episode-by-episode guides to each season. The guide to season 4 is now available at Amazon.com, and the upcoming season 5 book is now available for pre-order. She posts regularly on her television blog, Nik at Nite.
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