HUGE QUESTION #1 Revisited: Can they change the past?
We still don't know! My theory is that Miles was right: their attempt to stop the Incident by blowing-up Jughead actually WAS the Incident. When Juliet ignited the bomb, there will be a flash and all of those who were transported to 1977 will pop up in 2007 somewhere on the Island and that will conclude the time-traveling. Doc Jensen (Entertainment Weekly's major LOST columnist) has a completely different theory. He says that Juliet's bomb blast stopped the Incident from occurring. Doc Jensen thinks a lot of crazy things.
For now we must address new questions!:
Who's that dude talking-up Jacob?
We met Jacob! He likes to make tapestries and eat fish! He has an enemy. To me, this no-name guy oozed Smoke-monster (and Doc sort of thought so, too: neat!).
Here's a part of their obtuse exchange:
No-Name Guy: they come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.
Jaco: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, it's just progress.
So I'm sort of getting the feeling that Jacob keeps bringing people to this Island with the hope that their interaction with the Island will eventually evolve to a desired end.
But is Jacob good or evil? We're not sure yet who the good guy and who the bad guy is in that beach conversation. Jacob sure seemed nice, and he was wearing white where No-Name was wearing black. However, if I was going to bet money I'd say that Jacob is probably more malevolent than benevolent. And yes, I do think they have to be polar.
One thing that was sort of an "answer" about Lost is that at least some of characters were hand-picked to come to the Island (perhaps that's open for interpretation, still). However you look at it, Jacob reaches out and touches Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Locke, Sun and Jin at some point in their histories. (Yay! Muppet Babies!) How many of the LOST characters did Jacob touch back on the mainland, when, and why? Will we find out next season that Jacob had touched Charlie and the rest of our original cast at some point (it'd be great if they could bring in as many characters from the first season as possible next year!). Interestingly, he touches Hurley and Sayid at points in their lives after they had spent time on the Island. Also note that, although we were treated to a flash-back of Muppet Baby Juliet, Jacob is not featured in that scene. Jacob also contacts Ilana at some point in her life, and they appear to have a pre-established relationship.
Another interesting side-note about Jacob's visits: he often apologizes for the bad things happening to his future Island residents (see Saywer and Locke).
Speaking of Ilana, although we still don't know the deal about the Ajira gang and their candidate-recruitment program, we do know one thing: Who lies in the shadow of the statue?: He Who Will Save Us All (in Latin).
We also discovered in this episode that resurrected Locke (who seemed a bit off after dying, can't we agree?) isn't Locke at all! He's No-Name! Now this is where my theory that No-Name is Smokey (or vis-versa) is a bit sticky because No-Name seemed ignorant of what went down between Smokey and Ben in the Temple. Hmm...
No-Name/Locke and Ben go to visit Jacob in his four-toed statue hangout and Ben goes ahead and stabs Jacob. Before No-Name kicks Jacob into the fire-pit, Jacob warns "they're coming." Who's coming? Does he mean the Ajira gang or the 1977 crew or perhaps some third group?
There's more to discuss (Kate/Jack/Sawyer/Juliet romance issues, for one), but that's all I have in me for now. I will be watching and blogging about Seasons 1 - 5 of Lost over the summer looking for further insight into this wonderful mess of a show. Join me!
So, I had a slightly different viewpoint on Jacob going back to visit people, initially. I thought that he was going to prevent them from going or returning to the island. With Kate and Sawyer, it seemed like he was trying to influence them away from their paths to the island by getting her to not go into a life of crime, and by facilitating a conversation where Sawyer maybe finds some peace about his parents' deaths. When I thought that was where the story was going, I was REALLY angry, because, as I've stated before, I do not like the idea that the past CAN be changed, so I didn't like the idea that Jacob was going back and changing things so that they would not come to the island.
ReplyDeleteBut, I still have a MAJOR pet peeve. Only Juliet ever seemed to understand that if they stop Flight 815 from crashing, then THEY, the people who are living in 1977, will cease to exist. Those people will basically die. It will different versions of themselves who will get to live their lives in the future as if the crash never happened.
Not to mention the fact that they never would have met each other. Juliet gets it, when she says that if she never met Sawyer then she never would have had to lose him. But everyone else seems to be all la-di-da, we'll just wake up in LAX and get to be happy. I mean, it's a philosophical problem, so people can have different perspectives, but my view is that THEY won't get to wake up in LAX. Some alternate reality Kate, Jack, Sawyer, etc. will get to continue on their alternate reality lives that they are already living, and the versions of themselves that are on the island in 1977 will just die, along with everyone else on the island. Even if the producers don't see it that way, it's certainly arguable and I think it's bizarre that not a single character thinks about it that way.
I hope you are right, and that the explosion IS the incident, or in some other way, it is what happened.
Dustin and I were both happy about Rose and Bernard. They did exactly what we've been saying people on the island should have been doing this whole time. Just accept it, and make a life for yourself. I mean, Sawyer and the 1977 Dharma crowd did it as well, but it was nice to see Rose and Bernard there, clearly happy. Though I have to say, I find it unlikely that Bernard either of them would have been as overweight as they were after living alone for three years scavenging for Dharma food or hunting.
Also, I HATED that during Jack and Sawyer's conversation, Jack made everything about Kate. ENOUGH ALREADY! I wish that Kate had been the one to fall down the shaft, instead of Juliet. Everyone needs to just get over it. Kate's not all that great. She's annoying and boring. She and Jack deserve each other, and I liked Sawyer and Juliet.
Last comment, when the hell did Jack grow a pair? Out of nowhere he's shooting people? Generally, I liked the episode, but I found his character switch to be completely unbelievable.
Great points!
ReplyDeleteI think that because they haven't had any characters truly hash-out the reality behind "if we really blow this bomb up, we will cease to exist" idea, we can rest assured that that isn't how next season won't play out.
What I think was happening with this story line is that the writers presented just enough information regarding "what if we COULD change the future" to have the characters (especially the completely spent Sayid and Jack) embrace the concept even in the abstract. But because this is totally not going to happen, the writers didn't allow any further air time to be dedicated to the hypothetical reality of changing the future.
I'm open to them have changing the future slightly, but not in as dramatic a fashion as "we all just landed at LAX and we're strangers and what Island?" But you know... that would be one way to end the series. Not a good one, but certainly a conclusive one.
As for Jack gunning down Dharma folk with the greatest of ease, I think it reflects his transformation into Locke! Locke never debated killing someone if it interfered with his "fulfillment of his destiny," and now that Jack is a Man of Faith, he won't hesitate, either.