For me, my head is absolutely spinning trying to comprehend what we saw. As such, this is likely to be my longest blog entry as I try to work through what I think this all means. So fasten your seat belts, bring your tray tables to the upright and locked position, and leave your sanity at the Sydney airport....the Island awaits.
It would be impossible to discuss this episode starting anywhere other than the opening scene. I expected we would see Jacob this episode, but I was floored to meet him in the first few minutes. Obviously my "Jack is Jacob" theory has been H-bombed....then again, I think everyone's Jacob theories are shot. Now I'll get to the statue and the boat later, but let's first focus on the conversation between Jacob and the other man on the beach. It seems apparent that Jacob has been bringing people to the island for a long time and according to his "friend", the results are always the same..."they come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt". Jacob and this other man appear to disagree on this...so much so, that the other man says he will find a loophole and kill Jacob. This is clearly significant, as is Jacob's comment that, "it only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." There is much to chew on here, so let's break things down a little.
Jacob and his "friend"
First, let's talk about who/what these two men are. If one man is Jacob, there has been suggestion on the internet that the other man is Esau. In the bible, Jacob and Esau are the twin sons of Issac and grandsons of Abraham. It is written in at least two bible passages that God loved Jacob, but hated his brother Esau. Ironically, Jacob used deception to receive Esau's birthright to become spiritual leader of the family, leading to protracted animosity and conflict, including Esau's vow to kill Jacob. With that said, I don't believe the men on Lost are literally the brothers Jacob and Esau. However, the parallels are indisputable, and may provide clues as to where things are heading. Jacob and Esau, become the leaders of Israel and Edom, respectively. In the Book of Obadiah (Hebrew Bible and Old Testament), Edom is destroyed with no survivors at the "end of days". So, if you believe in the Jacob/Esau allegory, Jacob's side will win the coming war.
More importantly though, I think we are seeing the definition of the "black and white" conflict that has been alluded to in the series. Several weeks back, I wrote a non-episode specific entry on good and evil using Stephen King's "The Stand", Star Wars, and Harry Potter as similar archetype stories. Jacob and "Esau" are representative of the two sides...as Locke explained Backgammon to Walt in Season 1, "Two players. Two sides. One is light - one is dark." I believe we've now met the players, the real question is which one is "the good guy"? Maybe we got a clue in the opening scene where Jacob was wearing a white shirt and "Esau" was wearing a black shirt, but I caution everyone that looks can be deceiving.
Locke explains "light" and "dark" in Season 1
That is a good lead in to the person that appears to be John Locke. So who guessed Locke's body was in the crate? Put your hand down! Last week, I said that Locke's new-found knowledge/communication with the island didn't feel right and that something weird was going on. I guess I was right, but damn, I didn't see that one coming. It was so much like "The Sixth Sense" where you smack yourself on the head and say, "of course that wasn't really Locke...it was there all along." So here are a few thoughts/questions on this:
1) Why was "Esau" off the island (or was he off the island)? I get the sense that "Esau" is somehow connected to Widmore. Remember it was Widmore that was insistent that Locke return to the island. Maybe Widmore believes "Esau" taking over the island will enable him to return.
2) What was the "loophole" "Esau" found in order to take over Locke's body and kill Jacob? I haven't the foggiest clue on this one, but clearly he couldn't be the one to do it (so the killer is "Mr. Linus with the knife, in the foot chamber").
3) Why does "Esau" appear to be omniscient? I've got a theory that "Esau" is the Smoke Monster (or aligned with the Smoke Monster)....and the Smoke Monster is Death or an agent of Death. See my comments below regarding the statue that relate to this.
4) I opened my commentary on the episode "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" with a brief review of the tragic life of John Locke. After this week it is clear that John was just a pawn in a bigger chess match. It is even sadder to look back on last week's episode and realize that "Esau" was really the one having Richard tell Locke that he must die to return to the island. Poor Locke...always the victim.
Before we leave the opening scene completely, we were now able to get a better look at the statue. I have previously been on the record as stating the statue is Anubis, Egyptian guide to the Underworld. Well, I was wrong (although, I think Anubis will be a factor in the story). It appears that the statue is more likely a representation of Taweret, Egyptian deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. This provides an interesting juxtaposition of Taweret (birth) and Anubis/Cerberus (death). If my above conjecture that "Esau" is the Smoke Monster (death) is correct and Jacob lives at the statue (birth), then perhaps we are again seeing the dark-light connections. Remember too that fertility (or lack there of) has been a long running theme on the show....Juliet was brought to the island because of women dying in pregnancy. This is clearly significant.
The statue
Taweret
Speaking of the statue, remember that Ilana and Bram have posed the question to various characters: "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Well, this week Richard finally had an answer: "Ille qui nos omnes servabit", which translates to, "He who will protect/save us all." Jacob is literally in the shadow of the statue, so he is the savior (at least from one point of view).
At this point, we don't really know what Jacob's motivations are, but let's talk about what we do know and this was mostly revealed during the flashbacks. It is interesting that at key moments in each of characters lives, he appears and touches them (touched by the hand of God?)...but is he helping them, saving them, recruiting them, or something more sinister? Let's look at each of these:
- He enable Kate to get away with a crime. Does this change her moral center, allowing her to execute her father, participate in a bank robbery, and flee the police/federal agents?
- He provides young James a pen to finish writing his revenge letter to "Mr. Sawyer", a letter that will haunt him until he ultimately kills the man responsible for his parent's deaths.
- He wishes Sun and Jin well at their wedding and to never let go of what they have together....in perfect Korean. Remember that Charlotte also spoke Korean (coincidence...maybe...maybe not)
- He appears to bring Locke back from the dead after he is pushed from a 5-story window. The giver of life?
- He stops Sayid from crossing the street at the moment Nadia is hit by a car and killed. The bringer of death?
- He gives Jack a candy bar that was stuck in the vending machine and says, "just needed a little push". This happens just after Jack experiences his first surgical challenge (as he recounted to Kate in the Season 1 pilot) and argues with his father about it. Hmmm....remember that Christian still plays some part in all this.
- He shares a cab with Hurley and suggests that his ability to speak with the dead is a blessing and not a curse. He then is the one to advise Hurley to get on Ajira 316. Finally, he renounces ownership of the guitar case in the cab, which Hurley brings to the island. What the hell is in that case? Interestingly, Hurley is the only one of the original Oceanic 815 survivors to receive a straight encounter with Jacob in the real world.
- He also has an encounter with a heavily bandaged Ilana in which he asks for her help. She already knows who he is and agrees. Note that Jacob does not touch her.
There was one other flashback...Juliet's. However, this one did not involve Jacob. Keep that in mind later when I discuss Juliet.
Let's continue on the Jacob analysis, because there is another item that deserves attention. I think some of the minority fan disappointment is that the Jacob that appears in this episode, seems incongruous with the Jacob we've "seen" in the cabin. To date, "cabin Jacob" has appeared as a mysterious bearded man in a rocking chair, a disembodied voice saying "help me", a maniacal eye, a technology averse spirit, and even Christian Shepherd (claiming to speak for Jacob). What I am wondering is if "cabin Jacob" is really Jacob after all. Remember that the cabin had a circle of ash around it. Maybe that circle had something to do with keeping something or someone in. Maybe "Esau"? That would blow the Smoke Monster theory....but it certainly is possible. If the ash circle was recently broken, then maybe that is why "Esau" has come on the scene. Two things to think about:
1) Why did Ilana and Bram go there first if that wasn't where Jacob could be found? Since Jacob could move on-off the island, it seems unlikely he would be trapped in the cabin. And Ilana and Bram were disturbed by the broken ring of ash. If Jacob did live in the cabin, was the ring of ash protecting him there?
2) What is the significance of the cloth picture of the statue on the wall? They also knew that someone else has been using the cabin....Christian? "Esau"? Or, maybe Ilana and Bram aren't really on Jacob's side after all. I know we had the flashback scene with Ilana in the hospital, but maybe she was in the injured condition BECAUSE of Jacob. I know this is flimsy, but just store it away in the back of your head as this plays out.
I don't have any great answers here, but I don't think the producers suddenly changed their mind on the depiction of Jacob. Whatever was in the cabin before, is not the Jacob we've seen this week.
Jacob as seen by Locke in Season 3
Jacob as seen by Hurley in Season 4
Burning down the house
Earlier I referred to Locke as a pawn. Well, I think it is clear that he wasn't the only chess piece in play. Benjamin Linus has been massively manipulated by the Jacob and "Esau". He has given everything he has to the island and yet he was never given an audience with Jacob....yet "Locke" has. I was reminded of this exchange from "The Godfather Part II":
Fredo Corleone: I'm your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over!
Michael Corleone: That's the way Pop wanted it.
Fredo Corleone: It ain't the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect!
When Ben asks Jacob, "What about me?" Jacob responds, "What about you?", I can take this one of three ways:
1) Jacob has never respected Ben and never viewed him as a leader.
2) A man of faith doesn't need to be shown God to believe.
3) Jacob was challenging Ben to make this his defining moment.
I think it might be the last of these....but where do Ben's motivations lie. He has been manipulated by "Locke/Esau" and "Alex/Smoke Monster" into believing he must kill Jacob (further evidence that "Esau" and the Smoke Monster are one-in-the-same or at least aligned). But maybe...just maybe...Jacob wants Ben to kill him. Remember that Jesus needed to die in order save man...just as Obi-Wan Kenobi or Harry Potter needed to die in order to win the struggle between good and evil. "If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Maybe Ben is fulfilling his destiny and his duty to the island. As "Esau"/Locke says, "things will change once he is gone." I think he is right.
Fredo Linus?
That brings us to Jacob's last words...."They're coming." So, the obvious question is who? You could make an argument that he means his Ilana-led team...but I don't think so. I believe it has to be the Oceanic survivors from 1977. So let's go back to the groovy seventies to talk about what happened there.
Starting underground, Jack and Sayid remove the warhead from the bomb and get ready to transport it to the Swan. Richard sledgehammers a doorway into Dharmaville via Horace's basement, but coldcocks Eloise, and tells Jack and Sayid they are on their own. A very cool shootout transpires, Sayid is shot, but a daring escape is made thanks to Hurley, Jin, and Miles. Meanwhile underwater, Kate convinces Juliet, who convinces Sawyer that they need to blow this popsicle stand and row back to the island. They run into Rose, Bernard and Vincent, who don't want anything to do with any hair-brained schemes and are perfectly content to let whatever happens, happen.
Shootout at the barracks
OK, so that brings us to the showdown between the bomb squad and the love triangle (or square or whatever polygon you choose). Sawyer and Jack "take it outside". At first they are civil and Jack reveals his real reason for wanting to blow up the island (Kate), but it eventually degenerates and we finally get to see the rumble that we've all be waiting to see. I loved that it was brutal and they really went after each other...5 seasons of anger and resentment spilling out. Ultimately, Juliet stops Sawyer from beating Jack to death and convinces him that they need to help Jack. Last stop for Jack is convincing Kate, which he does and then it is on to mission impossible....blow up the Swan.
The gunfight at the Swan was great. Here are a few things to note:
- Phil got a nice steel bar through the chest...that's what he gets for hitting a girl.
- Dr. Chang turns a gun on Radzinski.
- Chang's arm is crushed....remember that in some of the DHARMA videos Chang has a prosthetic arm.
- Radzinski escapes the scene.
- Miles leads Chang away from the scene.
Now, let’s talk about Juliet. First and foremost, lets note that Juliet was wearing a red shirt. Star Trek fans know that anyone who beams down to a planet with a red shirt, ain’t coming back. In fact, the Lost creators are well aware of this phenomenon and often refer to some of the background characters as “red shirts”, because they are expendable. So, when she was struggling to hold on to Sawyer, you just knew she was going to be pulled down. I’d also like to refer to the above section on flashbacks that hers was the only one not to feature Jacob. I think this was another indication that she was going to die. Ultimately, she did let go and fell. But, what’s this...she’s still alive? Trust me, this was ONLY so that she could detonate the bomb.
So, let me give you my thoughts on what happened. I think the bomb was detonated and vaporized Juliet. But above the surface, it only released the electromagnetic anomaly and will send Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Hurley and Jin back to the future. So, when Jacob, says “They’re coming.” This is to whom he is referring. The bomb did not destroy the island, nor did it kill anyone above the surface. Radzinski will finish the Swan station as a containment project and Dr. Chang will continue making orientation videos. And Miles, will help his pops with time travel experiments in the Orchid station.
Here are a few more interesting thing:
- Bram asks Ilana if she thinks Frank Lapidus is a “candidate”? For what, student body president? I’m guessing they want him on their team.
- The tapestry in the chamber under the statue (the one Jacob wove) has greek writing on I that translates to: “may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires”....which comes from Homer’s “The Odyssey”
Jacob’s tapestry
- The ship seen in the distance at the beginning of the show is likely the Black Rock (I’m starting to think maybe this really is where Richard came from). So how did the Black Rock end up in the middle of the island? Also, it appears the statue was still standing in the 1800s, when the Black Rock arrived. Although, perhaps the Black Rock didn’t come to the island at the right bearing and was transported to an earlier time in history. So if Richard came from the Black Rock, he may have been on the island longer than 150 years.
- When Kate is caught stealing, she takes a New Kids on the Block lunchbox. No self-respecting criminal steals a NKOTB lunchbox.
- How about Radzinski’s line: “If Edison was only concerned about the consequences we’d all be sitting in the dark. I came to this island Pierre to change the world and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.” How prophetic he might turn out to be.
- Richard tells us that Jacob is responsible for his not aging.
- Speaking of Richard, he has an interesting exchange with Jack where he asks him about Locke. Richard says that when he visited Locke off the island “he never seemed particularly special”. Jack advises Richard not to give up on Locke. This may be part of how Richard is duped into bringing “Esau”/Locke to Jacob.
- We saw some vintage Sawyer when he shoots the radio in the sub and quips, “You ain’t home.”
- I know a lot of people didn’t like the characters flip-flopping on whether or not they should stop Jack, but upon a second viewing, it is clear that Juliet’s change of heart is influenced by her visit with Rose and Bernard. You can see it on her face that dying with Sawyer is better than living apart...and this was clearly in her all along from her flashback. And Kate is in love with whomever is within 10 feet...so you can’t be surprised by her.
- The book Jacob is reading on the bench as Locke falls from the building is Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rise’s Must Converge”. It is a collection of short stories, in which human weaknesses are exposed and important moral questions are explored through everyday situations.
- So great that they showed Sun finding Charlie’s “DS” ring in Aaron’s cradle. I thought this is one of those things that would be forgotten. I have to believe this is important.
Charlie’s ring
- Sayid’s last line is a great one....”Nothing can save me.” Sayid is without question the most tortured soul on the island (ironic for the torturer) and believes he is being punished for his sins. I believe he will live to die another day.
- Ben makes reference to “Esau”/Locke being marched to Jacob like Moses. While I don’t think this is a clue, it is kind of an interesting characterization.
- The episode ends with the screen exploding to white and then “LOST” appears in black on the screen. This is the exact opposite of every other episode. So, was this just for effect or was it symbolic that everything is going to be different. We’ll see.
Inverted Title Screen
So where do I think we are going next season? As I mentioned above, I think all of our Oceanic 815 survivors will return to 2008. And I think if we look at the blueprint provided by “The Stand”, I think we can surmise that we will leave science fiction behind and move more into a journey of mysticism and morality. The battle lines will be drawn between good and evil. This is the war that will play out and result in the some form of The End of Days. In the words of Ms. Hawking, “God help us all.”
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